Addicks Reservoir Mystery Road And Cross

[GREASER]

http://www.historicaerials.com/?poi=3441

There is no farm house NW...look very close and its water, or something. You can see in later dates its dried up. But look at the entry rd from the right. There is a buisness of some sort. Looks like Two tanks or towers with a building beside it.By using the measuring tool, you can see its approx 1300 sq ft. In the 57 photo its very clear, but you have to zoom in..and to the South of that is a holding area for water I guess. Its perfectly round and you can see the runnoff patern from the North. In the 60`s you can see the building is pretty much gone, but there is something just west...looks like a bunch of boxes lined up. Then its gone, but you can see the outline of it still

[sevfiv]

I *may* have a chance to check it out tomorrow (depending on a few things) - I have a feeling it's going to be really tough to navigate to where these formations are. Also, geocaching.com doesn't list a cache in that specific area (maybe because of property issues) so I have no GPS coordinates from that, but I got approximate ones from google maps...

[theoriginalkj]

I *may* have a chance to check it out tomorrow (depending on a few things) - I have a feeling it's going to be really tough to navigate to where these formations are. Also, geocaching.com doesn't list a cache in that specific area (maybe because of property issues) so I have no GPS coordinates from that, but I got approximate ones from google maps...

There is already another two that want to go out there. If you didn't make it today, perhaps all four of us can go next week? There is a Geocache out there, actually TWO of them. One just south of the road out in the middle of no-where, and one in the middle of the big tree in the middle of the cross.

[sevfiv]

I made it out but didn't find much...walked out toward the center of the cross, and it seemed we were in a narrow strip of young pines a lot of the way. Once the GPS said we were about .11 miles from the center, there were three ponds, and then beyond those a bank with some water and then a cleared area. I assumed this was the eastern edge of the formation, but it was so hard to tell from the ground...

Looking at the aerial now, it feels like we were in the right area, but it should have been way more obvious...

I'd be up for going again with more folks, too. Next weekend?

[sevfiv]

And there's much better perspective from the maps.live.com birds' eye view:

[amanda]

P.S. I went out here today too, and it was a total jip!! Just like that abandoned "barn" in Dickinson off 517. The only thing worth noting is that nature's way of telling you to stay out is by creating those thorny vines that lock on and envelop onto a branch or root to trap you!!! And there was a series of 3 ponds. I think it was a trifecta possibly created by aliens and/or religious freakz, back in the 70s (as former posts have stated). They may have skinny dipped here, ate some of the nasty mushrooms out there, and worshipped the big J!!!! (hence the cross!)

[sevfiv]

This is the view to what probably was the edge of the cross area:

and here are the ponds:

[GREASER]

if you entered the old rd on the east side, you would have had to pass by the area, very close to the entry, where there was some structure..did you not see anything?

[sevfiv]

Never saw anything like that or the remains of anything...

[theoriginalkj]

Wow, such activity. Looks like two HAIFers visited the site this past weekend. I don't know that there is much to see or uncover that hasn't already been discussed here, but I personally would like to see if there is a rumored bridge across the creek if you follow the old road a bit farther to the west. If anybody is game, perhaps we can all have scheduled meet-up to go exploring next Saturday at 10:00am. Who is up for one group HAIF visit to the circles? Raise your hand?

Never saw anything like that or the remains of anything...

[The G-Team]

Sevfiv and Amanda, how were the mosquitoes when you went out there? Did you see any banana spiders still in their webs or have they gone underground too? I assume the snakes are dug in for the winter, but maybe the mosquitoes still are bad?

The coordinates for the middle of the cross are N29 48.311 W095 37.532. I entered the cross area from the SW section a few years ago with Kevin and I still remember we found what looked like the bones of a boar or something on the edge of the pond area.

The coordinates for the bridge, which is a concrete/cement cattle crossing bridge, are 29 48.233 and W 95 37.770. There maybe something farther west, but I don't remember seeing road markings very clearly so you would just have to start walking.

I don't have the coords for the area (big circle of water with mound in the middle) to the NW of the cross, but if you find the "Terracache" (not geocache, but just another competitor of geocaching) in the tree in the center of the cross and open it up, on the lid is the coordinates for the other circle that is NW of the cross. You can of course also just start walking northwest if you have a compass/GPS. If you want to walk to the mound inside that circle, bring some waterproof shoes or boots because your feet will get wet. It is completely surrounded by water or 10 foot tall reeds that you can't get through.

Last time Kevin and I walked out there, I remember Kevin walking behind me and yelling to me at one point, "Look out...snake!!!!" just as I was about to step on a snake. It looked like a non-poisonous variety, but I'm not an expert. Watch out for snakes. I also saw a devils horse grasshopper which i had never seen before...that was pretty neat. Bring a walking stick or pick one up off the ground if you go...they'll help you knock down the spider webs if they are still up.

Have fun.

[sevfiv]

Bugs were very minimal, and we didn't see any snakes. The only menaces were thorny vines and water...

[Ross]

I wonder if those are the remnants of some sort of oil and gas activity that contaminated the ground just enough to change the color from the air. I'll see if I can find a Railroad Commission record for that area. There shouldn't be any issues walking around out there, it's public property, controlled by the Corps of Engineers.

[GREASER]

If they own it, your prob right. Its contaminated and things will grow differently when the water makes the chemicals rise. There was an old dumping ground by where I worked. They drove steel plates in the ground so they chem. couldnt leech (sp?) into the surrounding areas. Still, they provided drinking water and there was a very high rate of cancer there. Nothing seemed to grow in the area.

I still think there was a buisness there of some sort, and this may have been where they dumped the byproduct.

[editor]

I find the three ponds interesting. All in nearly perfect circles. Sure seem man-made to me. Unless they're sinkholes.

[John Rich]

Hello. I'm a newcomer to the forum and this particular discussion. I became interested in this Addicks Reservoir area independently, and ran across this forum in my research. I've put my boots on the ground and hiked the area, so I may have something worthwhile to contribute with my comments. Here is my two-cents worth.

The "crop circles" are definitely man-made, in my opinion. The dirt has been scooped out and piled around the edges to create these bowl-shaped circles. In one, two intersecting high lines run through the middle, upon which small trees have now grown, creating the "cross" appearance on the aerial photos. On the other, the dirt was also piled into an island in the center, with one large tree growing on it, creating what appears to be a "mound". I think these are nothing more than stock ponds, that some rancher created with a bulldozer to store water for his cattle.

In support of that theory, I offer this: If you follow that dirt road west, you come to a small one-lane concrete bridge over the ditch alongside the road. That bridge is in the form of a cattle-guard, with parallel beams spaced apart with gaps between them. These kinds of bridges are common on ranches, because cows won't walk across them, because they fear their hooves will fall through the gaps. Thus, you don't need a gate to keep the cattle from escaping.

If you follow the slightly raised overgrown road trail running north from that bridge, you come to a small concrete home foundation, with some Acme bricks scattered around. There is also an old brick-lined well, partially covered with railroad ties. And there is a concrete water trough, used to support livestock. Also some fencing in the shape of a cattle chute, used to get cattle into a single line to be loaded onto a trailer. There is also another small stock pond just north of this home site.

The story someone posted of the LH7 ranch operation also buttresses this theory.

As for the pond-and-cross, perhaps the rancher had segmented pastures so that he could move his cattle from one to the other, as is common, to allow grass to grow in one place, while the cattle are eating it all up in another. And the fence line for those segments might have criss-crossed right through the middle of that pond, on purpose. So each of the pasture quadrants had access to water from the same source, no matter which quadrant they happened to be in. That way one pond served four pastures, instead of having to build four different stock ponds, with one in each pasture. That's a wild idea I had on this.

So, with all that, I think that this was just a cattle ranch area, and those "crop circles" are nothing more than a creation by a bored cowboy on a bulldozer, making waterholes for his livestock. He's probably sitting back sipping a beer right now, laughing his ass off at all this wild speculation he created, decades later.

Those are my general impressions.

Now to respond to some specific questions and speculation.

The area isn't maintained by man. The raised roadbed is overgrown with trees, and obviously hasn't been driven on for 20 years or more. The reason the circles look maintained is simply because they are swampy areas, mostly underwater, and it's like a small pond. There are lily pads and reeds growing in them, but that's it. They may dry out now and then, but they're underwater often enough to keep trees from taking root and surviving. The surrounding embankment and higher land has trees.

These are not Indian mounds. However, archeological surveys have found Indian middens (trash piles) in the general area, including buried skeletons, up to 2,000 years old. So ancient people lived and camped here, but they did not create these particular land features. The first archeological survey was in the 1940's, and there have been several since, including some formal digs. These reports are at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and copies are at the Houston Archaeological Society.

If you're worried about that "mystery road" (Lamb Road) gate, you can park south of that where there is a break in the guardrail underneath the powerline crossing, which is just north of where Eldridge goes over top of the dam. It's an access point for pipeline and powerline maintenance trucks. People go through there to fish at the pond. Then you can hike north on the pipeline cut to get up to Lamb Road, then follow that west. Total hiking distance, one way, is only 1.5 miles from there.

As far as trespassing goes, I believe this is all federal land, part of the Army Corps reservoir, and is therefore open for hiking to the public. Their web site even says so.

If you don't have GPS, you can still find the ponds. As you hike west on Lamb Road, watch the ditch on the right closely, and you'll find an old rotten wooden bridge over the ditch. That's where you want to turn north to go to the ponds. Watch your step, as you're likely to fall through. It's easier to go around it - the ditch is very shallow. The ponds are only a couple of hundred yards north, and if you look up at the treetops ahead of you, you'll notice a gap in the forest canopy when you get close - that's where the opening from the pond will be. I found both just by dead reckoning, and didn't resort to my GPS. Once you've found one, you can get to the other using a compass bearing. If you're at the circle-and-cross pond, just hike north-west to get to the second pond with the island in the center. Then go back south to Lamb Road, and follow it west until you see the concrete bridge, and follow that roadbed north to the home site. Return to Lamb Road, and hike west again to see Langham Creek.

Where Lamb Road ends at Langham creek, was used as a dumping site for trash. There is an old freezer, a washtub, a refrigerator, and plenty of old bottles and other trash. It all seems to be 1950's and 60's era stuff. The reservoir and dam was created in the 1940's. The road to the home foundation site is also littered with bottles and cans.

The pictures of the circles already posted in the thread are just like the ones I took this week.

You won't make it very far on a bicycle, or an ATV. The trees are dense. There is no way that any kind of tractor gets back there to mow the grass. It's gone wild. On foot is the only way to go.

As for the Blue Light cemetery, it does indeed still exist. If you go to Pavilian 8 in Bear Creek Park, and look to the south, you'll see an open field through the tree line. That's where the German settlement of Addicks used to be. On the south side of that field is a fenced area, and inside is the Blue Light cemetery. Very few original headstones remain. There are a few footer stones. And modern markers replacing the stolen/vandalized original stones, indicating who was buried there, and their birth and death dates.

As for the flooding in the original town of Addicks, I think that was happening even before the dam was built. After several flood cycles, the townspeople decided it was a bad location and they split up and moved on.

Photos attached, from the home site.

1) The concrete bridge heading north from Lamb Road, to the old home site.

2) The concrete home foundation.

3) Looking inside the brick-lined well.

4) Map of the location of the "Blue Light" cemetery.

5) The rotten wooden footbridge on Lamb Road, where you turn north to go to the stock ponds.

[tmariar]

Wow - thanks for sharing your research with us, John!

[sevfiv]

Thanks for posting, and welcome to HAIF.

I'm not sure if you have seen the other thread about the Addicks markings here - there are some recent discussions and a few pictures.

[John Rich]

Thanks for posting, and welcome to HAIF.

I'm not sure if you have seen the other thread about the Addicks markings here - there are some recent discussions and a few pictures.

Thanks for that reference. No I hadn't run across that one yet.

And WOW! I love that web site with the historical aerial photos. That's an amazing resource!

- John

[John Rich]

There seem to be dual threads going on simultaneously.

Rather than duplicate everything in both places, I'll just reference the other message.

A new report on this topic, with additional photos, can be seen here:

[editor]

[editor]

Well, it seems like the mystery is pretty much solved now. In a way it's a relief, but in another way it's kind of disappointing not to have the mystery anymore.

Since the pond is apparently nameless, I'm going to claim it in the name of HAIF. It is now HAIF Pond. To reenforce my claim, I've gone out there and sprinkled Miracle-Gro in the shape of the letters H-A-I-F in the circle.

[John Rich]

While I'm at it, here's a few photos from the Hillendahl "Blue Light" cemetery:

This cemetery can be visited with just a very short walk of only about a quarter-mile across an open field.

1) Road map.

2) Aerial view.

3) Surrounding fence.

4) Gate, unlocked at this time.

5) Mossy old headstones.

6) Headstone footings.

7) Sample modern marker replacing former headstone.

The headstones were apparently vandalized and stolen in the past, and the area is subject to flooding. Some or all of the graves were moved to the new Bear Creek cemetery at Highway 6 and Patterson Road, near the Farm & Ranch club.

At the time of my visit, the area inside the fence was badly overgrown with foliage, in stark contrast to the well-manicured remainder of Bear Creek Park. I looked up the phone number of the park manager and spoke with him about the deplorable condition of the cemetery. A week later, he had a crew out there to clean it up. Thank you very much.

As I understand it, this is the situation with responsibility for the cemetery. Bear Creek Park is on flood reservoir land leased from the Federal Government, so the County is responsible for maintaining that leased land. However, the cemetery itself is still Federal land, not part of the County lease. So technically, the County is not responsible for maintaining it - the Army Corps of Engineers is. But the County Park manager did it anyway, just to make things right.

Scratch the photo attachments - I'm out of space for pictures here.

Go to this web site to view my brief photo slideshow: Hillendahl Cemetery

Just click on that web link, and then click "slideshow" to view the photos.

You will want to immediately click the plus-sign at the bottom of the screen to increase the number of seconds of viewing time per photo, or they'll whiz right past you before you're done looking. Then use the arrow keys to scroll through the photos, as you're ready.

- John Rich

[FIREhat]

I've been following this thread for a couple of years now as a lurker. Like a couple of posters above, this was one of the threads that kept me lurking around HAIF and eventually got me to join. Thanks for your contribution John!

[John Rich]

Thanks for your contribution John!

You're most welcome.

I've done some more hiking in that patch of woods, and have located two more sites where there were ranch homes, from as far back as the 1920's. I'll be putting together some photos for everyone here to see. I may start a different thread on them, in the "history" section. It'll take me a few days to get the photos organized and ready for presentation.

- John

[geopainter]

Hi folks! New to the boards, bu I've really enjoyed this thread and others on the Addicks/Blue Light/Bear Creek area. I'm always up for info on mysterious places that aren't there anymore.

In addition to John's excellent photologs and your comments, i thought you might be interested in this thesis i discovered online:

"Bear Creek: A case Study in locating Historic site remains in southeast Texas" - by Andrea Stahman, TA&M, 2004

https://repositories.tdl.org/tdl/handle/1969.1/3049

You can download it and read a bit more about the history of the former towns. There are some wonderful historic photos of some structures, explanations of the building designs (which migth explain some of the remnants found around the mystery domes), and pictures of a few notable residents, some of which were interned in the Hillendahl-Eggling "Blue Light" cemetery.

Cheers!

[John Rich]

i thought you might be interested in this thesis i discovered online:

"Bear Creek: A case Study in locating Historic site remains in southeast Texas" - by Andrea Stahman, TA&M, 2004

Good find! I'll be downloading that 20 Meg file soon to read it thoroughly. Thank you very much for sharing that.

I've also got another find on my end table awaiting my attention: a hardback book titled "The LH7 Ranch". That ranch was one of those in the Bear Creek area. The book was found by chance in a second-hand book store. Flipping through the photos, I believe that the concrete stairs I found in the woods were to the two story wood ranch house shown in this book.

Book: The LH7 Ranch

[Fred]

Speaking of "when cattle were still running there." The Addicks dam area was well known in the 60s and 70s as being the perfect environment for Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. You had everything there a magic mushroom might want, readily available growing medium (cow patties) and lots of water and humidity. I used to hear about people going back in there and picking mushrooms by the grocery bag full. Those mushroom people must have been, either fearless or totally unaware that the area was spilling over with special ops, black helicopters, 18 wheelers, Chupacabras, UFO landing pads, snakes, crop circles, and ghosts. Or maybe they were part of the same larger conspiricy. Sounds plausible doesn't it? Can someone check to see if there is an X-file already open on Addicks Dam?

Bat boy spotted at Addicks Dam

Yea, I checked and no x-files have been filed. However, the US Army has lot's of information concerning events in and around this Addicks area. The file before me right now reads"FOR YOU EYES ONLY. TOP SECRET!' On the second page in bold letters is the name MAJESTIC. Do not know what that means. Call this a joke or a hoax but an investigation was done and the results yielded some very intresting facts. Page 27 THE GREAT DECEPTION: This event will happen shortly before the second coming of Christ. You ask yourself what does religeon have to do with this topic, keep reading Batboy! The aliens, as you call them or refered to in this report as Nephilim. They claim they are responsible for the creation of the human race. That without their direct involvement, humankind as we know it today wouldn't exist. We would be , at best, in evolutionary terms, still be swinging from the trees. Page 43 GENETIN MANIPULATIONS: What the Aliens are saying negates what at least a portion of humankind has believed for thousands on years: the special act of creation by a divine being who designed humans in his own image. THE CRUCIFIXION: The aliens have a document on the crucifixion, and briefly put, they claim to have some sort of holographic film of it. They claim to have directly intervened in the resurrection. Now consider you have these UFO cosmonauts or aliens, whatevever you want to call them...Why is it that they travel who-knows-how-many light years to get here, and one of the first things out of their mouths is to tell us that Jesus was not the son of God and that the crucifixion was unnecessary and that they assisted in the resurrection,,,I myself, find this incredible! Out of all the things to discuss like the cure for cancer or saving the planet, they want us to know that Jesus wasn't God. If they can succeed, they crush the hope that Jesus has given mankind for the last two thousand years. Which of course is the hope for eternal life. So maybe the man-made cross in the middle of the everlasting circle is not a symbal but a warning. If God exist and created us, and if aliens changed our genetics, he should flood the earth and start over. Oh yea, he already did that. As for myself, I do not know what flooded dams, strange circles with crosses in them, mutilated cattle and the military all have in common. But I can tell you they are waisting alot of time, tax money and resources to investigate UFO sightings, abductions and cover ups. When they seem to already have the answers. From what I can make of this info, they do not come from another galaxy but from another realm. And why so interested in our genetics? Just so you know, I have never seen one episode of the x-files and I am not on mushrooms.

[JJVilla]

ExCeLLeNt!

[editor]

Yea, I checked and no x-files have been filed. However, the US Army has lot's of information concerning events in and around this Addicks area. The file before me right now reads"FOR YOU EYES ONLY. TOP SECRET!' On the second page in bold letters is the name MAJESTIC.

This must be the top secret headquarters, then:

And it looks like Metro is in on the deal! Stay away from the buses!