Photos

Here is another historical site from the Arcadia Valley of Southeast Missouri. The town is Ironton, Missouri, the courthouse is the Iron County Courthouse. It has been around since before the American Civil War and was the site of a minor skirmish just prior to "The Battle of Pilot Knob" in Pilot Knob, Missouri, a small town just down the road from Ironton. This Civil War battle was the only one that came within 100 miles of St. Louis, and was thwarted by the Union Army in Fort Davidson at Pilot Knob. They had to destroy the fort to do it, I'll have a little of that history tomorrow.

This courthouse sustained a blemish from a cannonball on the front, but I cannot point it out in this photo. My dad could have probably done so, but he is now at Fort Davidson with the souls of scores of Civil War veterans. He, too, is a veteran of the Civil War of sorts - my father collected Civil War for over 35 years, he was infinitely familiar with the Civil War in Missouri. He wrote articles, gave speeches and let people handle the guns and other items used during the battles. This started back in the 1960's - we used a metal detector around these sites and dug up bullets and cannon balls - my dad got very much into the Civil War after that. So much that it was his wish for his ashes to be spread at Fort Davidson. So that's where he is.

Anyway, there are a couple of Civil War cannon and some markers in front of the Iron County Courthouse. These particular cannon were not used here and probably not used at Fort Davidson. My mother, however, has a cannon in her front yard that was used by the Confederacy in the Battle of Pilot Knob. It came from a pig trough on Shepherd's Mountain, hauled to St. Louis by a tow truck in the early 1970's.

This place is on the National Register of Historic Places and has a real nice gazebo, as well, that is also on that register. You can see an image of that if you click here.

I'm not playing any distortion games today. I did remove some from this photograph, but it wasn't very bad. I didn't "stomp" on this one much at all - other than the distortion and a little bit of shadow/highlight adjustment, it is as shot, no polarizer.

Have a great day today!