d as well.When you visit Taum Sauk, you can also take in Elephant Rocks State Park, take a float on the upper Black River, tour the historic Civil War remnant, Fort Davidson.
Closer, you can visit Gads Hill, site of Jesse James first Missouri train robbery. It is on Highway 49 a few miles north of Piedmont.
Or you can venture into the big springs country and see the biggest of all, Big Spring at Van Buren. Also world class springs are Round Spring, Greer Spring, Blue Spring, Alley Spring and more.
Or venture into the Old South at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, a swampy remnant of the past.
You are not far from the confluence of the mighty Mississippi with the
Ohio River. Or from the music of Branson.Clearwater Lake makes a terrific base camp for exploring the whole Missouri Ozarks region.
History of the lake area
Pre-history in the Clearwater Lake area goes back to paleo-Indians who camped and hunted along Ozark Rivers, perhaps as long as 14,000 years ago.
When history of the area begins, we find the Osage Indians as masters of this area. About the time of the American Revolution, Shawnees and Delawares moved here, and were the Indians the first English-speaking settlers found here. Many of our place names are corruptions of Shawnee.
French, and later Germans, settled along the Mississippi and ventured here. But few settled.
The early English-speaking people settled in family groups along stream valleys in the early 1800s. Many were of Scotch-Irish descent and came here from the eastern mountains. Major settlement came, however, after the Civil War when railroads and a timber boom occurred.
This was an area that changed hands several times during the Civil War.
FORT BENTON
Near Clearwater - at Patterson - was a Civil War fortification called Fort Benton. The Wayne County Historical Society has preserved the site and its history. It is associated with the Battle of Pilot Knob, not far north of here, which was the bloodiest battle west of the Mississippi. Other battles involved Fort Benton as well.
Fort Benton has been placed on the official National Register of Historic Places.
A somewhat similar site is said to be Fort Barnesville in Reynolds County.
About the time of the Civil War the railroad towns of Piedmont and Ellington were established.
Timber was the earliest industry, beginning in the early 1800s with a timber boom. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a second major boom occurred, giving rise to many of the place names we have today. Timber remains an important industry in this area today.
Clearwater Dam was built in 1940’s. The building and maintenance of the lake has a significant influence on the area. Settlers here today tend to be retirees moving back from the city.