What a beautiful spring we have had this year! With the rainfall we have had the foliage is making a colorful statement with its growth and many shades of green! We are now starting into our summer months here and it’s so nice to live in a “true” four season climate!
I had a chance to catch a few chapters of reading this evening and I wondered what the first settlers of Baxter County were doing back in 1541…
The book is: History of Baxter County by Mary Ann Messick and I would like to share a couple of paragraphs with you:
“As far as recorded history is concerned the first Europeans to travel across the Territory of Baxter County were a band of the Grande Conquistadores from Hernando DeSoto’s party. They had entered Arkansas May 21, 1541, and several months later, splinter groups began to traverse the area.”
“The first permanent settlers in Baxter County, according to all the experts were the Cliff Dwellers, or the Rock Shelter People.” According to the author of this book, “it would have to be a choice between them and the mysterious Mound Builders. Who were the Mound Builders? Nobody knows for sure-but we do know they were here.”
I do know that I have ancestors who lived in caves/holes in the ground. These are called the McClanahan Holes and they are located in Marion County which is next door to Baxter County.
The cliffs, the rock shelters and mounds those were their homes, that’s where they went at the end of the day, their shelter, where they raised their families and I’m sure some of them were proud of their homes. I wonder what they would think of our real estate today. What ever they might think I know one thing is for sure they would still love living here and being a part of the beautiful Ozarks!