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It was not until after nightfall, in the evening of the second day after his departure from Little Rock, that Featherstonhaugh arrived at Magnet Cove. There, he was put up for the night at the unfinished cottage of Col. James S. Conway, who was then the surveyor-general of the Territory, and the same Colonel Conway who, two years later, was elected the first governor of the state of Arkansas. Conway, who had his plantation home at Walnut Hill near Red River, had built himself a cottage in the Cove as a retreat for his family from the intense heat of the summers at his Red River plantation. Despite the fact that it was the 28th day of November, the weather was mild and Featherstonhaugh rose before day dawned. The sun, which came up clear, found him already posted at a point high on the rim of the Cove, whence he got a clear view of the surrounding landscape, of which he wrote: "I was on a lofty elevation encircling a depression, which is in fact a deep basin of about 1200 acres. The land in the level floor of the basin's bottom is of the richest kind and is all densely wooded. It struck me as curious that this whole area, which rather affects a spheroidal than a circular form, is covered, both on the steep sides and in the cove, with deciduous trees, whilst without its limits the trees are evergreens and pines. The earth on which these deciduous trees grow is the decomposition of a very ancient greenstone that sometime intruded itself into the general strata of the sandstone of the surrounding country, which is wooded with evergreens and pines. Having returned to the house, and eaten a good breakfast, I went out again for a closer look at some of the singular curiosities of the strange place.
- "Colonel Conway had told me that while surveying the country he
had discovered that the needle of the compass would not traverse upon approach
to this locality. The structure, as I soon learned by examination of the
pebbles, is like that of the vein in Missouri which goes by the name of
Iron Mountain, and is made up of vast masses of the magnetic metal, which,
due to their great magnetic force, probably affect the country roundabout
for a great distance.
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