What is this???? (pics included)

[Horner]

These are some pictures I took yesterday.  While I was out turkey hunting.  These pictures were taken in Ohio, on National Forest land.

I have been hunting this place for seven years.  I have walked by this dug up spot a bunch of times.  It always seems to get bigger.  I always thought it was just where some one had started a mineral lick, and the deer were just wallowing it out.  I looked at it again as I past yesterday, and really took a good look at some of the tracks in it.
Some of the hoof prints in it look to spread out to be a deer.
So it has got me thinking it could be something else.
Before I go and say it, I would like your opinions on it.

[Mudd]

I'd say your 1st guess is correct. I didn't see anything in your pictures to suggest anything other than a deer lick.

God bless,Mudd

[magnus]

Horner. I didn't get the first picture but the rest look like a mineral deposit to me. Deer use em alot and we are getn more hogs every year according to ODNR. Set a trail cam n see. Good luck!
Magnus

[Apex Predator]

Deer lick.  Hogs would have done some rooting.

[KentuckyTJ]

Yep mineral lick, freshening ours up this weekend. Buck's really crave salt/minerals while their racks are growing. Great place to hang a camera in about a month to see the development.

[shikari]

hogs most likely.

[Doc Nock]

Ole fella up central PA told me as a boy, the highway dept would come each spring and ask his Pa to dump unused salt on a piece of ground that was hardscrabble dirt, didn't grow nuthin.

They would do that once a year... ole Jack said that pretty soon, you'd only see the back or ears of deer that had eat down the dirt that far...just to get the salt in the ground...

He died 2 years ago at age 86, so that was some time ago...

[Archer Fanatic]

It is probably a naturtal salt/mineral deposit. I would hunt around for sure.

[Horner]

Thanks all, I will hunt it some this Fall and see what happens.  
I would like to hang a camera out to see what is coming into it, but I had one stolen in this area last year.  I swore trail camera's off from that moment on.

ive seen some you could hide a volkswagon in upside down, i was amazed at how much dirt deer eat.

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

Pigs would of left smooth spots from laying in it.