White River History, 1888

Sharing Ozarks’ History is something I love to do.

Tuesday, October the 27^th at 6 pm, I will be sharing some of the research I have been doing for the past 2½ years on the White River. This is part of a special series for the library patrons of the Gassville & Cotter area. The event we had last month, with Dianna Roller on the "Ghost Towns of Arkansas," was a full house, and we ran out of chairs. Fortunately, some people brought their lawn-chairs.

 

 In 2013, I had an opportunity to go to Little Rock at the U. S. Corps of Engineer’s Archives and digitally scan these one of a kind maps. These digital scans will be included in this presentation.

 

505 Miles

The 1888 White River Maps are enumerated for 505 miles. The first plate begins in Forsyth, Missouri, and the series runs to the mouth of the river that empties into the Mississippi River. The cartographer labeled the mile markers in red ink. Additionally, the geographic features, landmarks, entities, and landowners are enumerated on these specific set of maps. These may not be the original landowner, but the current owners at the time of the survey from 1885 – 1887. Additionally, some maps have been annotated by hand after original production; these notes and figures were inscribed lightly in pencil.

The following is a list of features detailed on these 42 historical maps/plates:

•Bayous

•Bends

•Bluffs

•Caves

•Cities, Towns & Villages

•Cotton Gins

•Coves

•Creeks

•Dams

•Grist Mills

•Ferries

•Fords

•Hollows

•Lakes

•Landowners

•Prairies

•River Channels

•River Depth Soundings

•Rapids

•Reaches

•Roads

•Saw Mills

•Shoals

•Sloughs

•Swamps

•Steamboat Landings

•Steamboat Wrecks