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Oatman AZ7
Fifteen miles east in the Black Mountains, is the historic Oatman Mining District. Many original buildings still exist in the ghost town site. The Tom Reed, United Eastern, Gold Road and other mines produced more than thirty million dollars of gold from the early 1900's into the 1930's.
Brownsport Furnace 4A7
13 miles southeast, this furnace was built in 1848. Iron was mined from neighboring hematite deposits and processed here until 1878. The region is also known as "The Coalings," because of the extensive charcoal production here in iron-mining days.
Bright Hope Industries IC48
North about one mile on Furnace Creek was the Bright Hope Iron Works, built about 1830. Mining and smelting of iron ore and manufacturing of cast and wrought iron products were joined by a paper mill, pottery works, and several other establishments in an early industrial complex. The industries are believed to have failed as a result of the Panic of 1837, but their operations are still recalled in the place names of early Furnace Creek and Ore Bank.
The Mississippi Bubble IL416
"They related that there are mines of gold and silver....there is reason to believe that the French, who will settle among the Illinois Indians will make all these rich discoveries when the colony becomes more thickly populated." Thus, John Law Scot, adventurer and gambler, inflated the "Mississippi Bubble" in the fall of 1717. He had convinced the Duke of Orleans, Regent for Louis XV that paper money issued by a National Bank, and backed by a vast trading and colonizing enterprise would bring new life to the French economy. As part of the scheme, on January 1, 1718, the Company of the West received a 25-year charter to trade, settle, and govern in the Mississippi Valley. Speculation in the shares ran wild as Frenchmen of all classes engaged in the fantasy before the bubble burst in 1720 and left many investors bankrupt. Law's vision of the development of the region required more time and money than he had. Exaggerated accounts attracted some colonists; force brought others. As the operations of the Company in Lower Louisiana expanded, the District of Illinois profited. Several French villages sprang up in the American Bottom south of here and mining expeditions searched for the fabled minerals. The real wealth in Illinois, however, was the fur trade and the agricultural produce which sustained the other French posts. The Company struggled along until Indian warfare and inadequate financial returns forced the surrender of its charter in 1731.
First State Normal School WI276
Wisconsin's first college devoted wholly to training teachers, the Platteville Normal School, opened here on October 9, 1866, in Rountree Hall, which since 1853 had housed its predecessor, the Platteville Academy. The Academy (1842-1866) had functioned largely as a private high school, preparing students for college and teaching. When in 1865 the legislature authorized the state to establish "normal" schools for the training of teachers, many cities offered proposals. Platteville Academy's trustees provided Rountree Hall, the community raised money, and Platteville Normal School opened with a 5-member faculty and 60 students. Two years later, General Ulysses S. Grant participated in the dedication of a new wing. Rountree Hall became the home of the Wisconsin Mining Trade School in 1907, and the Normal School moved to an adjacent site. In 1925, normal schools were converted to state teachers colleges and empowered to grant bachelor's degrees. In 1959, the Wisconsin State College-Platteville and the Wisconsin Institute of Technology merged and in 1971 became the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Mound City National Cemetery IL351
has been listed in The National Register of Historic Places Mound City National Cemetery, being one of twelve original National Cemeteries, was established in 1864 pursuant to the Act of July 17, 1862, whereby President Abraham Lincoln was authorized "to purchase cemetery grounds...to be used as a National Cemetery for soldiers who shall have died in the service of their country." The land was purchased by the United States in two separate parcels from S.S. Taylor and Edwin Parsons, Trustees. Though Mound City and nearby Cairo, Illinois were not in the combat theater of the Civil War, their location near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers made these areas important staging points for dispatch of men and material during the campaigns of the west which opened the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers for the Union Forces. Several of the famous Eads iron-clad gunboats were built at the Mound City Marine Ways and Shipyard. These specially designed shallow draft iron-clads played an important part in the western campaign giving valuable support to the Union troops on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and at Vicksburg. Grim casualty lists of the wounded and sick became a part of life as the war dragged on. Large army general hospitals were established at Mound City and at Cairo to care for some of the war casualties. In 1861 a large brick building in Mound City was taken over by the U.S. Government for use as a general hospital. In service throughout the war, it was one of the largest military hospitals in the west. Another large hospital was established at Cairo. The services of Roman Catholic nuns of the Order of the Holy Cross at Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana were utilized as nurses to staff these hospitals. The establishment of these large hospitals was a determining factor in the location of the cemetery at Mound City, which later became Mound City National Cemetery. The hospital at Mound City was able to accommodate from 1,000-1,500 patients, and has been described as one of the best administered of the military general hospitals. Mother Angela, who was in charge of a school at South Bend when the war began, became supervisor of nurses at the Mound City hospital and rendered outstanding service. Among the outstanding surgeons at the hospital were Dr. E.S. Franklin and Dr. H. Warder, who was later in charge of the Illinois State Hospital at Anna, Illinois. The first patients at the Mound City General Hospital were the wounded from the battle of Belmont, KY, November 7, 1861. Heavy fighting at Fort Donelson, February 13-16, 1862, and at Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862 brought many more patients to the Mound City and Cairo hospitals. The death rate from wounds and all too prevalent diseases was high in the hospitals of the Civil War period. The report of the inspector of National Cemeteries for 1869 indicates that the original interments in the Mound City National Cemetery from the area hospitals numbered 1,644 decedents. Additional reinterments of remains recovered from isolated locations along the Mississippi, Cache and Ohio rivers and from Cairo, Illinois, Columbus and Paducah, Kentucky brought the 1869 total of interments in the cemetery to 4,808, of which the number 2,441 remains were decedents who could not be identified and were buried as unknowns.
Dillard Mill Historic Site MO322
Dillard Mill is one of Missouri's best-preserved examples of a water-powered gristmill. Sitting along the clear-flowing Ozark stream, Huzzah Creek, the red mill is nestled among trees and near water cascading over a rock dam, creating a picturesque setting. Dillard Mill is the second mill structure at this site. Wisdom's Mill, the first mill built here, was constructed in the 1850s. A rock wall along the Huzzah Creek was blasted open allowing the increased water flow to the mill needed for its operation. As a result, Huzzah Creek changed its channel. Joseph Dillard Cottrell and his brother , James, later owned Wisdom's Mill from 1881 to 1889 - years that brought many changes to the area. During the Cottrell's ownership of the mill, the small community grew with the establishment of a post office in 1887. It was also during this time that the community was named Dillard after Joseph Dillard Cottrell. In 1889, the Cottrells sold the mill to Andrew Jackson Mincher. The mill burned in 1895 during Mincher's ownership. Emil Mischke, an emigrant from Poland, purchased the mill property in 1900 and began construction of the present mill four years later. Using some of the hand-hewn timbers salvaged from Wisdom's Mill, Mischke built a 30-foot x 40-foot structure. Following plans developed by the Cornelius Mill Furnishing Co. of St. Louis for the interior of his mill, he installed steel roller mills instead of the more common buhr stones for grinding the wheat into flour. Another innovation he introduced was a turbine to power the mill. The new, modernized mill was complete in 1908. Mischke's sister, Mary, became a partner in the milling enterprise in February 1907, and they both worked hard to make the mill a success. Farmers from the surrounding hills and valleys came to have their grain ground at the mill. In 1917, Mary sold her portion of the mill back to her brother, and he remained the sole proprietor of the mill for several years. A decade later, the 66-year-old Mischke decided to send for a mail-order bride. His new bride, however, found it difficult to adjust to life in the rugged Ozarks and after only a few years persuaded Mischke to sell the mill and move to California. Lester Klemme became the new mill owner in 1930. In addition to milling livestock feed and flour, he decided to take advantage of the rustic Ozarks landscape by starting Klemme's Old Mill Lodge. A guest could spend the night in one of the cabins Klemme built, fish or swim in the mill pond, and eat at the Klemme table for only $7 a day. Klemme's age and a shift in the local economy from farming to mining brought about the shutdown of the mill in 1956. He continued to operate the lodge until the 1960s. In 1974, the L-A-D Foundation of St. Louis, a non-profit organization, bought the property. In 1975, the foundation leased the mill and surrounding property to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to operate as a state historic site. Also on the property is a building that once housed a general store owned by Adam Wilhite. Today, the restored mill contains most of its original machinery. Two of the three steel roller mills, however, were donated for scrap metal during World War II. Visitors can see the remaining machinery come to life during a tour of the mill. With the turn of a wheel, the mill begins to operate as it did years ago, grinding grain into flour. The sound of the water gushing over the dam outside the mill is replaced with the sounds of the belts and rollers turning. Tours of the mill are given year-round, although days and times vary by season. Groups should make advance reservations by contacting the site office.
Van Buren MO259
Van Buren, settled as the seat of Ripley County, organized, 1833, became the seat of Carter County when it was organized from parts of Ripley and Shannon counties, 1859. Nearby Big Spring State Park, 4582 acres of Ozark grandeur, founded, 1924, features the natural beauty of the largest single-orifice, fresh water spring in the U.S. Big Spring has a maximum flow of 840 million gallons every 24 hours and a daily average of 250 million gallons. The spring discharges about 175 tons of limestone in solution daily. 433 feet above sea level, at the base of a 500-foot cliff, the spring gushes through an impeded opening from an underground stream bed and flows 1,000 feet to Current River, famed spring-formed, spring-fed Ozark fishing stream. Of the 69 springs in the U.S. having a daily flow of 64,600,000 gallons or more, 11 are in the Missouri Ozarks. During the Civil War the Union Army of Southeast Missouri wintered in the area, 1862-63. The Snider House, west of town, is the site of one of several skirmishes. Carter County, whose main industries are lumbering and recreation, is almost evenly divided by Current River. Called La Rivière Courante by early French trappers, it has long been a highway and food source for the area. Early Indians found it attractive, for 36 villages and camps have been found in the area. Thousands of logs came down the river to nearby Chicopee in the 1890's and early 1900's, during the lumbering boom. The town of Grandin, to the south, one-time limbering center of Missouri, was laid out in 1888 by the Missouri Lumber and mining Co. Over 100,000 acres of Carter County's virgin forest land were bought and 15 to 20 thousand acres were harvested a year. From the mid-1890's to 1909 when the forest was depleted and the mills closed, production at Grandin's mills exceeded 60 million board feet of lumber a year. With the sawmills closed, Grandin and other mill towns in the area became like ghost towns. The natural forest resource of the area is being restored through local, state, and national effort. Much of Carter County lies in Clark National Forest, founded, 1933-37.
Fort Davidson MO238
Surrounded by the rugged splendor of the highest peaks of the Missouri Ozarks, Arcadia Valley lies in the geologic center of the Ozarks, one of the world's oldest regions. The valley towns are in an area settled in the iron mining boom of the 1840's-50's, when Pilot Knob here and Iron Mountain in nearby St. Francois County were thought to be of solid iron. During the Civil War, the area was early occupied by the Union forces to protect the Iron Mountain Railroad, completed between here and St. Louis, 1858. General Ulysses S. Grant's first command post after his commission as a general was here, Aug. 8-18, 1861. Fort Davidson, the earthen redoubt here, was defended by over 1,000 Federals under General Thomas Ewing against some 12,000 Confederates under General Sterling Price, Sept. 27, 1864. As a result of the engagement here at Pilot Knob, Price lost over 1,200 men to Ewing's some 200, and was halted in his drive to St. Louis. The fort, built 1863, named for Gen. J.W. Davidson, is owned by Clark National Forest and is maintained by the U.S. Forest Service. Ironton was laid out as the seat of Iron County, 1857, and the courthouse was built, 1858-60. The first settler in the valley was Ephraim Stout about 1807, and Missouri's first working iron furnace, Ashebran's was built on Stout's Creek about 1815. The town of Arcadia was laid out and the Methodist Espiscopal Arcadia High School opened, 1849. Later sold, it reopened as today's Ursuline Academy, 1877. The Home for Aged Baptists was built, 1923. On Fort Hill was Civil War Fort Hovey, also called Curtis. Before the Iron Mountain R.R. reached here, 1858, and the town of Pilot Knob was founded, iron ore was hauled over the 1843 Ste. Genevieve, Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob Plank Road. Graniteville was founded when the first large quarry opened, 1869. Here are Taum Sauk, 1,772 feet, highest peak in Missouri; Evangeline Falls; shut-ins on Stout's Creek; Lake Killarney; Tip Top Mountain, 1,500 feet; Royal Gorge; "Elephant Rocks"; and other sites. The name Ozarks is from the French abbreviation, Aux Arcs, for Aux Arkansas, meaning on the river, at the post, or in the country of Arkansas.
Battle of Pilot Knob - Russelville Junction MO235
RUSSELLVILLE JUNCTION September 28, 1864 1:00 P.M. -----2:30 P.M. The three towns of Arcadia, Ironton, and Pilot Knob are located in the Arcadia Valley. The valley's iron mining industry helped spur population growth and led the St. Louis & Iron Mt. Railroad to extend its tracks to Pilot Knob in 1858. The strategic nature of the railroad terminus and supply depot then situated in Pilot Knob explains the presence of Union Forces in the Valley during the Civil War and why the Battle of Pilot Knob was fought.
Selmons' Brigade riding in advance of the rebel army was first spotted at 1 P.M., by pickets here at the Russellville Junction. After the pickets had sounded the alarm, a cavalry rode here to verify the pickets report. Despite much shooting there were no casualties on either side. Display # 11 - 20 of 182 |