Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheryl And Orville Murphy.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
We, Orville and Cheryl Murphy, were born and raised in California, Cheryl near Los Angeles and Orville, near San Francisco. We did not care for big city life, which our parents birthed us into, so, in 1992, we moved near Mt. Shasta, California, a most naturally beautiful area, in the Cascade Mountain range of Northern California. By 2006, although beautiful most of the year, we were tired of so much snow every winter. Mt. Shasta is a skier’s paradise, but we were tired of several feet of snow in one storm! Being near retirement age, with the kids grown and gone, and still wanting a natural rural area to live in, we were introduced and moved to the milder climate of the beautiful Ouachita Mountains area of Polk County, Arkansas, near the Oklahoma border. The area is known, geologically, for quartz crystals and there are a number of crystal mines in the area. Almost all properties have some crystal veins. When we purchased our 50 acres in the small community of Board Camp (10 miles from Mena, AR) we knew nothing about crystals, but kept noticing a lot of sparkly rocks on the ground! Orville contacted the State Geologist who came to conduct a geological survey of our property. The State Geologist showed Orville the veins of quartz running through our property and he suggested we might consider opening a public digging site, running it as a small business. Since we were not interested in a large mining operation, using heavy equipment, we established Board Camp Crystal Mine as an all-natural, raw-earth rockhounding site, and opened April 1, 2012! Now, 2026, we are so very blessed by our visitors, who want to spend a day with nature, and experience a “treasure hunt” exploring and finding the beautiful sparkly crystals, which they take home and clean to see their true beauty! We even have a Mine Guide to assist our visitors with finding and digging up their crystals, although many are right on the surface for the gathering! And being parents, and grandparents, we decided NOT to charge admission for kids under age 16! We want families to come have fun together, learn about nature, and not worry about paying a large admission fee! We have hosted school classes too! Students are still free of charge! Today, 14 years later, we still enjoy all kinds of visitors who are excited about finding those pretty sparkly rocks to take home! We love to see the intrigue of the children on their hunt… everyone loves a treasure hunt! Rocks are like people… there are no two alike and each has its own unique qualities!
The crystal mine was our “normal” life until February 18, 2017. That day, my son, Josh, came to visit for the first time. The mine was about to open for its 5th season! Josh, Orville, and I stood out back of their house on a starry and warmer February night, looking at the stars… when suddenly… on the hill ahead of them, on our property, the horizon behind the trees started to glow white and 3 huge white beams of light appeared to “shoot up” from the ground into the night sky about 300 feet in the air! The three of us were so stunned… and couldn’t even speak! We stood and stared because it did NOT make sense! The beams lasted 8 to 10 seconds, then everything went black. We listened…there were no planes, helicopters, trucks, not even dogs barking. WHAT ON EARTH caused those beams of light? It was late and the 3 of us turned in for the night, feeling everything was “okay” and we were safe. The next morning, we decided to walk up to the top of the hill to see if we could see any signs of human activity, like tire tracks. It would take a huge truck with spotlights to get up there, but that seemed pretty ridiculous that a huge truck could access that part of the property on a dirt path! What we did find, was that all the metal objects were affected. Fence posts were leaning, a huge metal gate was toppled over, tools were strewn around on the ground… all the metal objects seemed affected by something. This was very strange! We went back to the house and called a friend to tell of our experience. Our friend was all excited and said, “YOU had a SIGHTING! You need to report this to MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network!” UFO? We had no idea what MUFON was because we didn’t follow all the UFO garbage. Our friend kept insisting and we caved in and called MUFON, even though it sounded ridiculous. The MUFON agent was very interested in our report because of the metal objects being affected. They asked us if they could come to our property to do an “investigation” because they wanted to check out the “evidence” left behind. They told us only 3% of people who report sightings have evidence left behind. It all sounded ridiculous, but the MUFON people sounded very nice and professional, so we thought, “Ok, why not?” They came in 3 days, and brought GAUSS meters, which measures electro-magnetic fields. They got extremely high and abnormal readings off the meters when they put them up to the metal fenceposts and the sign. They were ALL excited! This was physical evidence that something abnormal happened concerning the 3 beams of light! They asked all 3 of us, “Those beams, in your opinion, would you say they went up in the air and dissipated in the night sky like spotlights, or were they flat across the top?” We all agreed. Yes, they were flat across the top! The MUFON investigators proceeded to tell us they believed a craft came and hovered over our property and sent the beams down to our property, possibly to harvest crystal energy! THAT was the most ridiculous thing we ever heard! But these people were serious! They thanked us, and left, telling us they would send us a full report.
If it had ended there, we would have shrugged our shoulders and gone on with our “normal” lives, BUT we began to see flashes in the woods at night, like fireflies, but it was February and not firefly season! We began seeing these round white balls of light too! The round balls of light were self-illuminating, and flash on, and float around, then disappear. We had never seen or heard of that, but people we talked to described them as “orbs”. Then about a month later, the Travel Channel, at that time, was working with Josh Gates of the popular TV show, “Expedition Unknown”, filming an investigative mini-series called “Hunt for Extraterrestrials”. Their producers heard about our story through MUFON, and contacted us to ask if they could film at our property for their show! We were stunned over that too, but agreed. AND that night, as Josh Gates and his camera crew were walking through our woods, with us tagging along behind, we all suddenly saw an “orb” come “floating” through the trees, and suddenly disappear! And Josh Gates’ camera man got it on film! Our part of the filming was included in the show to be aired world-wide in October 2017! We were amazed of course, and so was Josh Gates! Gates hired an investigator-debunker, Ben Hanson, to view the film and Hanson said he believed the film was legit… and what was captured on film was… a UFO! There was no other way to describe it!
The film made it on TV and Board Camp Crystal Mine was being identified as a crystal mine with paranormal activity! Then we began to get more guests of interest… other paranormal investigators, but most of all, different Native tribes began to contact us! Natives call the “ETs” the “Star People”. Natives call the “Sasquatch” the “Forest People”. The Natives came and walked us through our woods and showed us signs of Sasquatch! We couldn’t believe it! Aliens AND Bigfoot at our place? BUT the Natives assured us that these beings are friendly… they are our “brothers” to help us humans with our earthly walk! We began to “communicate” with them in ways… mostly they would leave us “gifts”… beautiful crystal gifts… pretty sparkly stones in the house, outside, in our cars and our visitors’ cars! Our friends were coming over and seeing more lights in the woods and signs of Sasquatch activity! Finally, one of our friends suggested we open our place for Tours so the public could come see for themselves! And we opened our “UnXplained Tours” on August 1, 2017! Since then, hundreds of people interested in these things, have come to our property and seen more strange lights, heard strange sounds and generally, had an amazing time, as we share and learn from each other! It’s amazing we have met so many people who have come to our UnXplained Tours who have witnessed strange phenomena… and here we are in 2026 and the phenomena keeps happening! We now have collected so VERY MUCH evidence for ETs and Bigfoot… including Sasquatch footprints… and the strange lights? YES, you have to come see for yourself! How and why is this phenomena happening? We still don’t know after 9 years, but although we’ve been “startled” by the phenomena, we’ve never felt threatened! We believe the electro-magnetic field of the crystals has something to do with attracting these “other entities”! And our Native friends believe “they” respect us because we didn’t tear up the land when we started the crystal mine. It’s still all natural, peaceful and beautiful. And what we call “paranormal” is just that which Science has yet to discover!
Bottom line, we never dreamed any of this could happen to us! We are Christians my faith… and despite our human perspective, our Heavenly Father, the Great God of Creation, has led us in this direction! We feel very blessed, for the last 14 years, to be able to give our guests the beautiful experience of rockhounding during the day… and give people a fascinating experience during the evening… and more to think about the Great Creation, of which we are a part! Yes, we thank Father God in Heaven for all these extraordinary mysteries we are experiencing in this life! Centuries ago, Mankind, experienced thunder and lightning and had no idea what it was, and I supposed they thought the “gods” were crazy! Science finally discovered what thunder and lightning are… and what we experience now that we don’t understand, will one day be revealed!
Thank you for reading!
Cheryl Murphy
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Regarding the operation of the Crystal Mine, it was business as usual and we enjoyed our visitors! Regarding the “paranormal” experience, it was a struggle to justify the paranormal phenomena with our personal faith as Christians. Most often, paranormal activity in the Christian faith, is associated with the Devil! When all this started happening, I, Cheryl, went to the Lord and prayed and asked, “Ok Lord, these MUFON people are saying we have “aliens”. What is really going on here?” The next morning, I opened my daily devotional and what should be there but an article by Billy Graham called “The Mysteries of God”. Dr. Graham stated, “The word “mystery” is used many times in Scripture. Some of the mysteries of the past have been fathomed by science. Others still bewilder mankind. This fact remains: All of the garnered wisdom of the ages is only a scratch on the surface of man’s search for the knowledge of the universe. For the most part, God retains His secrets, and man standing on his intellectual tiptoes can comprehend only a small fraction of the Lord’s doings. This inability to comprehend fully the mysteries of God does not in any way curtail the Christian faith. On the contrary, it enhances our belief. We do not understand the intricate pattern of the stars in their courses, but we know that He who created them does, and that just as surely as He guides them, He is charting a safe course for us. A “mystery” in Scripture is a previously hidden truth now divinely revealed, but in which a supernatural element remains unknown despite the revelation. From Day by Day with Billy Graham, © 1976 BGEA
THIS article by Billy Graham was God’s answer to my prayer! It gave me comfort that I could respond to this experience with Faith and not Fear!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Regarding Orville, he became involved in the construction industry as a young man, eventually getting his General Contracting License in California. He was offered an opportunity to work for Dept of Homeland Security assigned to FEMA, and he traveled the country responding to disaster areas, and helping homeowners/victims get back on their feet and on their way to recover, after going through a disaster. He felt the work was personally rewarding to assist these people had “lost everything” and who needed help from the US Government financially to rebuild their lives.
Regarding Cheryl, she worked in customer service, mostly retail and the last 15 years before retirement worked for the State of California’s Employment Development Department, assisting people, who had lost their jobs, in searching and finding a new job. She felt it was personally rewarding to assist people with a task that feels like a huge weight, especially when offices were becoming computerized and many patrons were not familiar with computers, so Cheryl would assist them in every way possible to be ready for job search.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We deeply appreciate all who have done business with us, to support us as a small business, as well as a woman-owned, and Veteran-owned business. We have a unique niche in our offerings and appreciate ALL of our patrons, who have shown interest. We believe our rating is a minimum 4.5 or higher score out of 5! That’s amazing knowing that we served our customers with integrity and putting our best first forward, and much appreciate their feedback!
Pricing:
- Crystal Digging – $35 per person
- Crystal Digging – kids under 16 are FREE!
- UnXplained Tours – $40 per person
- All activities are discounted to repeat visitors!
- Our NEW CRYSTAL CABINS – $129/night stay!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://boardcampcrystalmine.com/crystal2/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boardcampcrystalmine/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boardcamp.arkansas/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg9ofInUBwSVNZoDshge4iw
- Other: https://boardcampcrystalretreat.lodgify.com/
