To a German geologist named Norton who was traveling through southwest Arkansas lately, Farmer J. L. Cox of Graysonia showed a hunk of red rock. "Cinna-bar," explained the geologist. "Put it in a fire pot. It will run quicksilver." That is one version of the start of a current rush to mine mercury in the Ozarks. Another version is that railroad laborers exposed a valuable vein of cinnabar near Amity when they blasted out some sandstone riprap.
No matter how the lodes were discovered, southwest Arkansas was booming in minor key last week....