Local Historian Help

[waterpossum]

This may qualify as a non Hot Topic, but here is the question? I was fishing Sunday and for the first time decided to go about a half mile above the 39 bridge to check out the water. There were a few caves on the steep 45 degree bank on the North side, but on that steep incline there were several really old rock fences that started close to the bank and ascended way up the hill. What, when or why were they built? They are really old. I am sure they weren't property boundries. Someone long ago devoted countless man hours building those things. Any ideas?

[Sac River Jim]

i asked my friend that lives a mile north west of there and he said that those fences were built by slaves as a property boundary. he cant remember who owned the land you were talking about but he said that there are still a few of the old rock fences that have been preserved on the corp lands scattered in the area.

[denjac]

We were fishing up there just last week and had the same conversation. My theory is most land owners were much to poor to own slaves so I think they were built by the owners family friends. By the way did you get bit up there. We didnt.

[denjac]

Another thought. It could have been a small grist mill there at one time. They seemed to like to build them on bends in the river.

[Sac River Jim]

i did some looking around on the internet because my couriousity is up too. heres a couple of links to some interesting facts i discovered about the area. it doesnt really tell who built the rock walls but i still find some the facts very interesting. .that area on sons creek we are talking about was the first area to be settled starting in the 1820's. so those fences could be very old or even the oldest structures still standing in dade county from the first settlers. anyhows heres the linkz and you can decide for yourself the ''mystery of the rock fences on sons creek.''

http://www.ozarkscivilwar.org/regions/dade-county-missouri

http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofdadecou00greeiala/historyofdadecou00greeiala_djvu.txt

[bfishn]

...My theory is most land owners were much to poor to own slaves so I think they were built by the owners family friends...

Found this;

Dade County, Missouri. Formed: January 29, 1841;

County Population 1860: 6,727;

Slave Population 1860: 350

That's about one slave for every 18 free people. Plenty enough to stack lots of rocks.

I skimmed over the 1860 geo survey (spirit level) report for that area, and there were three types of existing geographical features they measured to and marked most commonly; concrete structures, trees, and stone fences. There were several stone fences noted in the area records.

I've never seen the spot in question, does anyone have a picture?

[dennis boatman]

Sometimes Civil War soldiers on their way home worked for food...I know of some stone fencing in this area (Morrisville) that I heard were built this way.

[Sac River Jim]

the more i dig into this the more interesting things i find. thnx for the topic

[waterpossum]

Thanks for all of you for the input. To denjac, no I didn't get bit up there and was very disappointed because all conditions seemed right. I guess the corp owns that piece of property, but if I can find out a little history on the ownershp over the years it might solve the mystery. On another note, winter before last when the lake was way down I went beachcombing and found a perfect 3"x2" spear point. My daughter who has done some archeology digs (most notably three years ago in Syria )identified it as about 7,000 years old in the mid to late Archaic period. It is called a San Patrice point. The Sac river below the dam a few years ago was the site of a real important dig called The Big Eddy Site. Maybe the oldest artifacts ever found in North America.

[waterpossum]

i did some looking around on the internet because my couriousity is up too. heres a couple of links to some interesting facts i discovered about the area. it doesnt really tell who built the rock walls but i still find some the facts very interesting. .that area on sons creek we are talking about was the first area to be settled starting in the 1820's. so those fences could be very old or even the oldest structures still standing in dade county from the first settlers. anyhows heres the linkz and you can decide for yourself the ''mystery of the rock fences on sons creek.''

http://www.ozarkscivilwar.org/regions/dade-county-missouri

http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofdadecou00greeiala/historyofdadecou00greeiala_djvu.txt

Thanks Sac River there could be cause to believe that the fences were built by slaves as denjac surmized.