J. Yochem's Cabin
Henry Schoolcraft spent the night here at the cabin of J. Yochem on the homeward leg of his three month journey through the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks. Schoolcraft had travelled to this point in a canoe with companion Levi Pettibone, and described the White River as possessing the “purity of crystal, with a smooth and gentle flow”.
Wednesay, January 13th, 1819
Mr. Friend having represented the antiquities in that neighbourhood as worthy of examination, together with the mineral appearances on the hills, situated back from the river, we determined to devote apart of the day to that object. The hills, like every other section of this country noticed, proved stratified masses of secondary lime-stone, covered by a deposit of elder alluvion, the surface of which afforded radiated quartz, and fragments of horn-stone, but no particular indications of a metalliferous character were observed. The antiquities, situated principally on the east bank of the river, at the Bull Shoals, have already been mentioned. Some further appearances of this kind are seen at the distance of a half-a-mile below the dwelling of Mr. Friend, where I procured an excellent kind of flint, and some antique bones and arrow-heads, from beneath a heavy bed of alluvion covered by trees. Owing to these little excursions, it was late before we left Friend's settlement. Four miles below we stopped at a Mr. Lee's, being the first Yankee met with in these regions; and, after dinner, went down the river about six miles to Yochem's, where we passed the night.
-Henry Schoolcraft
Funding for the Schoolcraft Journey project on Unlock the Ozarks has been provided by the Missouri Humanities Council.