A Secret Mission

•December 11, 2024•

by Janet Roney

“Big Spring smoky hill Camp winter 1810” … “Plat 1-2-3-4 to Jefferson” … “old house 4 mens bones French guns” … “Johns Mary buryed Rok” … “watch trader Vandla 4 British 7 savage”…

These and other cryptic notes fill an 1811 map and report I found while doing a little “light reading” during a January snowstorm about 25 years ago. The book was the 1976 reprint of the History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois that I found in our Historical Society library. This book changed my life! (Yes, I do have a life! I just find searching for old trails fun, and I have a patient, helpful husband.)

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