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Here in one of the most beautiful areas of Missouri's Ozarks, Eminence was founded as the seat of Shannon County after it was organized, 1841. First located north of Current River, the town was burned in the Civil War by guerrilla bands who overran the area. After the war, Eminence was laid out, 1868, on Jack's Fork of the current.
Named for George (Pegleg) Shannon of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the county lies in the Big Springs Country of Missouri. In this region of over 5,000 square miles are 11 of 69 U.S. springs of first magnitude (64,600,000 gals. daily minimum). Three of these, Alley, Blue, and Welch, are in this county. Of 23 ebb-and-flow springs in the U.S., 5 are in Mo, 3 are in Shannon.
In 1924 two state parks were established near Eminence. In Alley Spring State Park are an 80,800,000-gallon spring, a cave, and a pioneer mill. At Round Spring State Park a spring gushes into a bowl 80 feet across and 30 feet high. Parts of the county are in Clark National Forest, set up in 1933-39. West on Jack's Fork is the Missouri State Teachers Association resort, Bunker Hill.
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(Back):(Continued from other side)Eminence serves a resort, lumbering, and livestock, farming county first settled in the 1820's by pioneers from Ky. and Tenn. The county is part of the region ceded by Osage tribes, 1808, and utilized by Shawnee and Delaware Indians until the 1820's.
Missouri's first copper mine was opened near here by Joseph Slater in 1837. Others were established, but mining was done only intermittently after Michigan's mines were opened in 1846. Iron was also mined for a time and, in World War II, Missouri's only manganese mine was opened at Thorny Mt.
The forest resources of Shannon County were harvested by the thousands of acres by big lumber companies between the 1880's and the 1920's. The towns of West Eminence, Winona, and Birch Tree were once booming lumber camps. A program of reforestation is bringing the timber back to the hills.
Among scenic points are the state parks: Blue Springs at Owls Bend of Current River; Ebb-and-Flow Spring at the mouth of Jack's Fork; Welch Spring at Cedar Grove; and in Horse Hollow, Sinkin' Creek.
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