SkipCaptcha, Automoderated users, edit
1,631
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 11:
Line 11: − + + + + + + + + + + +
Reynolds County, Missouri (view source)
Revision as of 04:09, September 27, 2020
, 04:09, September 27, 2020Added to page
The county seat was originally located in the town of Lesterville, in the central part of the county; during the upheavals of the [[Civil War]], however, the courthouse was burned by [[Confederate]] soldiers, and a new one was built in Centerville a few miles to the west.<ref>https://collections.shsmo.org/manuscripts/columbia/C2366/reynolds-county</ref> The new structure in turn burned in 1871 and had to be rebuilt. On account of these two fires, many documents relating to the county's early history are lost.
The county seat was originally located in the town of Lesterville, in the central part of the county; during the upheavals of the [[Civil War]], however, the courthouse was burned by [[Confederate]] soldiers, and a new one was built in Centerville a few miles to the west.<ref>https://collections.shsmo.org/manuscripts/columbia/C2366/reynolds-county</ref> The new structure in turn burned in 1871 and had to be rebuilt. On account of these two fires, many documents relating to the county's early history are lost.
In the decades after the Civil War, with agriculture limited to the river bottoms, logging became a chief source of occupation, with Bunker and Ellington serving as important points for rail transport. Beginning in the 1920s, with much of the virgin timber cut, the economy and thus the population began to decline, only beginning to recover from the 1960s onward. The creation of Clearwater Lake, made by damming the Black River in the 1940s, has assisted by providing recreational opportunities, as has the more recent opening of [[lead]] mines in the northwest of the county.<ref>https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2008/5140/pdf/Chapter1.pdf</ref>
In the decades after the Civil War, with agriculture limited to the river bottoms, logging became a chief source of occupation, with Bunker and Ellington serving as important points for rail transport. Beginning in the 1920s, with much of the virgin timber cut, the economy and thus the population began to decline, only beginning to recover from the 1960s onward. The creation of Clearwater Lake, made by damming the Black River in the 1940s, has assisted by providing recreational opportunities, as has the more recent opening of [[lead]] mines in the northwest of the county.<ref>https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2008/5140/pdf/Chapter1.pdf</ref>
==Geography==
Reynolds County is one of the Ozarks counties of southern Missouri. Apart from a zigzag western border, it has a roughly trapezoidal shape, tapering toward the south. The county is bordered by Iron County to the northeast, Wayne County to the southeast, [[Carter County, Missouri|Carter County]] to the south, Shannon County to the west, and Dent County to the northwest. It has a total area of 814.41 square miles, including 808.48 of land and 5.93 of water.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20131021170230/http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/docs/gazetteer/counties_list_29.txt</ref>
The eastern part of the county is part of the St. Francois Mountains, a subdivision of the Ozarks that contains most of its highest peaks. These include Proffit Mountain near its northeastern corner, the county's highest elevation at close to 1,700 feet above sea level.<ref>https://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=6576</ref> Its western portion is part of the Salem Plateau, a somewhat lower, more rolling region with few elevations above 1,200 feet. Most of the land is heavily forested and rocky, so that the bulk of the population is concentrated in the narrow river valleys. The chief river in the county is the Black, which drains most of it; the lowest elevation (about 500 feet) is just below Clearwater Lake, as the Black continues southeast into Wayne County.<ref>https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/missouri/MO179/0/Reynolds_MO.pdf</ref>
There are no interstate or federal highways in the county. The main roads are Missouri State Highway 21, which enters from the northeast and runs south through Centerville and Ellington; Highway 49, which loops through the northeastern area; Highway 72, which passes through Bunker and Centerville in a generally west-to-east direction through the north of the county; and Highway 106, which begins at Ellington and continues west into Shannon County.
In addition to the Clearwater Lake area, Reynolds County is also home to Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, a popular recreation area on the east fork of the Black River. The Mark Twain National Forest encompasses much of the northern part of the county.
==Communities==
==Communities==