Our Arklahoma Heritage: Is "Doc Martin" still prowling the hills outside of Dover in search of the Lost Tobe Inman SilVer Mine?

The Ozark Mountains of Arkansas have long been a cradle for tales of hidden wealth and lingering spirits, where the line between history and myth blurs amid the misty hollows and rugged hills.

In Pope County, near the towns of Dover and London, two enduring legends capture this essence: the elusive Inman silver mine, tied to ghostly lanterns swinging in the night, and the haunting of a young bride slain on her wedding day.

Drawing from local folklore, historical accounts, and buried treasures chronicled by authors like W.C. Jameson, these stories reveal not just quests for fortune but the human tragedies that echo through generations.

The tale begins in the mid-1800s, amid the post-Civil War hardships of rural Arkansas. As recounted in W.C. Jameson's Buried Treasures of the American Southwest (1989) and echoed in local oral histories, a reclusive family named Inman arrived from Kentucky by wagon, settling near Moccasin Gap in Pope County.

They lived in isolation, their ramshackle cabin a testament to the era's frontier poverty. The father, rarely seen in nearby Dover, traded sparingly, while the mother and two young sons remained hidden from prying eye

The pivotal moment came one harsh winter when one of the boys fell gravely ill with fever.

Desperate, the father rode into Dover and summoned "Doc Martin," a local physician known for his house calls across the Ozarks. Martin tended to the child for days, pulling him back from the brink. With cash scarce in those hills, the Inmans paid in kind: a box of handmade bullets, their tips curiously heavy and gleaming

.Years later, as the story goes, Martin rediscovered the forgotten box on a shelf. Scraping away the lead, he found the tips were pure silver--valuable enough to spark obsession.

Convinced the Inmans had stumbled upon an abandoned mine, perhaps a remnant of Spanish explorers or Native American workings, Martin confronted them. But the cabin stood empty; the family had vanished, seeking "an easier lifestyle" elsewhere.

Martin, a man of science turned treasure seeker, devoted his remaining years and fortune to scouring the hills above Dover. He never found the mine, but locals whisper that his spirit endures.

On foggy nights, a solitary light sways in the darkness--a lantern, they say, carried by Doc Martin's ghost, eternally hunting the silver vein.

This legend isn't isolated folklore. It intertwines with the famous "Dover Lights," a well-documented phenomenon in Pope County where mysterious orbs or beams appear along the Arkansas River Valley. Sightings date back to the 1800s, often attributed to atmospheric reflections, swamp gas, or piezoelectric effects from quartz-rich rocks.

But in local lore, as detailed in regional publications , the lights are tied to treasure hunts.

One variant mirrors the Inman tale: a doctor (possibly Martin) searches for a silver mine on a poor man's land, his lantern becoming the ethereal glow.

Historical context adds credence. Arkansas's Ozarks were rife with mining rumors in the 19th century. Spanish explorers like Hernando de Soto traversed the region in the 1540s, leaving whispers of hidden silver caches. Later booms, such as the Silver City rush in Montgomery County (1876–1882), fueled similar stories. Jameson, a prolific treasure historian with over 100 books, documents dozens of such legends in Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of Arkansas (2011), including sealed caves and collapsed shafts.

While the Inman mine isn't explicitly named in previews, Jameson's works often feature "silver bullet" payments and vanished prospectors, suggesting it's part of this story.

.No concrete evidence of the Inman mine exists--no deeds, assays, or artifacts--t that's the allure. Prospectors still hike Moccasin Gap, armed with metal detectors, chasing what Jameson calls "the richest and most varied stories of lost treasure" in the state.

As one NPR interview with Jameson (2015) notes, he's recovered silver ingots himself, proving the Ozarks hold real secrets amid the myths.