Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/419

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 359 very greatly by overflow from the local streams. This, too, is a very fertile and pro- ductive district containing some of the best farm land in this section of the state. West of the Sikeston ridge, lying between it and the ridge in Stoddard and Dunklin counties, stretching north to the foothills in Cape Girardeau county and with an arm ex- tending to the river at the town of Cape Gir- ardeau, is Little river valley. This valley va- ries in width from 10 to 20 miles and is about 9 miles in length from its head at the foot- hills to the Arkansas line. This great area containing several hundred square miles was subject to overflow from Little river and the greater part of it not capable of being culti- vated. On the west side of Crowley's ridge extend- ing to the Ozark hills is a flat bottom of the St. Francois and Black rivers, a strip of ter- ritory not much unlike the Little river bot- tom though not subject to such constant over- flow. As we have seen the first settlements in these alluvial districts were made on the hills in Scott county, on Crowley's ridge in the Charleston district and on the ridge extend- ing south from Dexter; these were the parts of the district that were not subject to over- flow and that could be cultivated without the drainage system : some of this teiTitory, es- pecially in the Charleston district and on Sikeston and Dexter ridges, was prairie land; not only was it high above overflow, but free from timber, being covered when the settle- ment was made upon it, by high, coarse grass and in some eases overgrown with bushes. Some of this prairie land retains the name as Mathews Prairie, Little Prairie, West Prairie and Grand Prairie. We see Avhy settlements were being made both east and west of the Little river bottoms, which for a great many years formed a practically im- passable barrier between the settlements on its east and west respectively, and it further explains the reason why Dunklin county and Stoddard county were settled much later than some other counties in the district. They were cut off from immigi-ation from the east by the Little river bottoms and it was impos- sible to reach Dunklin county especially, ex- cept after traveling long distances out of the way. Another thing which is made evident by this study of the physical situation of Southeast Missouri is why Cape Girar- deau became early an important trading point. The settlers in Dunklin county and in Stoddard county could not come in touch with river transportation except by coming to Cape Girardeau, and thus for many years that town was the principal shipping and distrib- uting point for large areas of Southeast Mis- souri. It has been estimated by competent au- thority, that Crowley's ridge and the Scott county hills near Commerce, together com- prise about one-eighth of the total area of the alluvial section and that the dry bottom lands not subject to overflow which were found in Mississippi county, in Scott, in New Madrid, Stoddard and Dunklin taken together com- prise also about one-eighth of the total area. If this estimate is correct only one-fourth of the vast area of the alluvial section, as it was seen by the first settlers, was capable of cultivation. This statement needs to be taken in this light that while some of the lands not included within this one-fourth made impos- sible to be cultivated, they were subject to overflow at times. Three-fourths of the dis- trict which we have under consideration was subject to overflow from the Mississippi river and from other streams in the territory. Most of this land was covered with heavy