Iron Mountain is an isolated knob of the St. François Mountains in St. François County, eighty miles south of St. Louis. One of the richest and purest iron mines in the United States is found there.—Ed.
[63] The Peoria were one of the five principal tribes of the Illinois Confederation. They resided around the lake in the central portion of Illinois, which bears their name. In 1832 they were removed to Kansas, and in 1854 to Indian Territory, where, united with other tribes, they still reside.—Ed.
[64] For a short account of Fort Chartres, see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 71, note 136.—Ed.
[65] For Prairie du Rocher see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 70, note 133. The legend referred to is, "Michel de Couce" by James Hall, in his Legends of the West.
Contrary to Flagg's statement that there exists no description of Fort Chartres worthy of its history, Philip Pittman, who visited the place in 1766, gives a good detailed description of the fort in his Present State of the European Settlements on the Missisippi (London, 1770), pp. 45, 46.—Ed.
[66] For location and date of settlement of Herculaneum, see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, p. 212, note 122.
On a perpendicular bluff, more than a hundred feet in height, in the vicinity of Herculaneum, J. Macklot erected (1809) what was probably the first shot-tower this side of the Atlantic. The next year one Austin built another tower at the same point. According to H. R. Schoolcraft in his View of the Lead Mines of Missouri (New York, 1819), pp. 138, 139, there were in 1817 three shot-towers near Herculaneum, producing in the eighteen months ending June 1 of that year, 668,350 pounds of shot. From the top of small wooden towers erected on the edge of the bluff, the melted lead was poured through holes in copper pans or sieves.—Ed.
[67] For the location of the Platine (usually spelled Plattin), see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, p. 212, note 123. Lead mining has been carried on in this district, intermittently, since 1824.—Ed.
[68] See Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, p. 212, note 123.—Ed.
[69] The following extract from the Journal of Charlevoix, one of the earliest historians of the West, with reference to the Mines upon the Merrimac, may prove not uninteresting. The work is a rare one.