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
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ago. The Osage
tribe was later master of the
area. About the time of the
American Revolution, Shawnees and Delawares moved here, and were the
first tribes English-speaking settlers found here.
This was an area that changed hands several times during the Civil
War. Near Clearwater - at Patterson - was a Civil War facility called
Fort Benton. The Wayne County Historical Society is working to
preserve the site and its history. It is associated with the Battle of
Pilot Knob, which was the bloodiest battle west of the Mississippi.
Fort Benton was recently placed on the official National Register of
Historic Places.
Many local place names are corruptions of Shawnee words. French, and
later Germans, ventured here, but few settled.
English-speaking people settled in family groups along stream valleys
in the early 1800s. Many were of Scotch-Irish descent and came from
the eastern mountains.
The railroad
towns of Piedmont and Ellington were established about the time of the
Civil War. Major settlement came after the Civil War when the
railroads and a timber boom opened the area.
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