Tishomingo State Park, Tishomingo County, Mississippi, USA
This sandstone wall (FOV 1.5 m) shows a pattern of staining due to the deposition of iron oxides.
© Larry Maltby
From the top of the bluff there is a trail down to Bear Creek. About half way down is this sandstone overhang. The slab of sandstone at the lower right corner has two depressions indicating that this overhang was once inhabited by indigenous people. The slab is a nutting rock. The depressions are the result of years of pounding hickory nuts for ...
This is a close-up photo of the nutting rock. I know that they were breaking hickory nuts because when we returned to the top of the bluff there were hickory nut shells strewn under the trees. There are also three small grooves to the right of one of the depressions. The only use of the grooves that I can think of is that they may have been used ...