| Smelter or Food Processor? As shown by Ned Coleman to Leslie & JD Evans and Tommy Lyde in 1998 Immediately to the west of the gas plant on Lone Star Road in Clay County, is property once owned by Ned Coleman. Immediately west of the property line, by app 50 yards, is an injection well put in by Lone Star Gas about 1999. App 20 yards WSW of this well, is a large rock. It is about 10’ by 5’ and 3 or 4’ high on it's south end. It is oriented N to S, and is located within 5 feet of a small creek, that only runs dry in the summer months. Carved into this rock is this feature. |
The drain runs west to east from the flower pot shaped hole. It is obviously man-made as evidenced by the
symmetry and constant width of the drain and the fact that the hole has a flat bottom. The area to the right side of the
drain is well-worn, as if something was scraped or rubbed on it. This amount of wear surely was done over many
months or years.
Notice how level the drain is to the right, We spent some time examining the ground beneath the drain, but since
we did not have the land owners permission to dig, we found nothing.
One theory has it that Indians collected water from the stream and used the worn area to crush nuts, or grains and
mixed a dough in the hole for bread.
I once saw a drawing on a University of Texas site, of Mexican peons returning to Mexico, with donkeys, from a trip
to Texas. Each donkey was outfitted with a rack, holding ingots of copper. Each ingot was app 6 – 8” across and flower-
pot shaped with a hooked iron rod coming out the top app 12” to allow it to be hooked to the rack.
If the drawing was accurate, it might fit this depression. The scrapped area could have been used to crush the copper
for smelting. Melted copper could have been poured into the hole and the drain would allow impurities to be removed.
If an iron rod were placed in the center of the pool of melted copper, the whole thing could have been easily removed
from the mold when cooled.
In the following picture, Tommy Lyde is cleaning the dirt and debris from the hole.
symmetry and constant width of the drain and the fact that the hole has a flat bottom. The area to the right side of the
drain is well-worn, as if something was scraped or rubbed on it. This amount of wear surely was done over many
months or years.
Notice how level the drain is to the right, We spent some time examining the ground beneath the drain, but since
we did not have the land owners permission to dig, we found nothing.
One theory has it that Indians collected water from the stream and used the worn area to crush nuts, or grains and
mixed a dough in the hole for bread.
I once saw a drawing on a University of Texas site, of Mexican peons returning to Mexico, with donkeys, from a trip
to Texas. Each donkey was outfitted with a rack, holding ingots of copper. Each ingot was app 6 – 8” across and flower-
pot shaped with a hooked iron rod coming out the top app 12” to allow it to be hooked to the rack.
If the drawing was accurate, it might fit this depression. The scrapped area could have been used to crush the copper
for smelting. Melted copper could have been poured into the hole and the drain would allow impurities to be removed.
If an iron rod were placed in the center of the pool of melted copper, the whole thing could have been easily removed
from the mold when cooled.
In the following picture, Tommy Lyde is cleaning the dirt and debris from the hole.
| The small creek is about 5 feet from his feet. Notice in this picture and the following one, the rust colored stain or feature in the rock near his arm. No scrapings were made since we had assured the landowner that we would only photograph, and not damage anything. In the following picture, you can see the flat bottom to the hole. |
| So…food processor or part of a primitive smelting operation? |