The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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AN OLD INDIAN CAMP GROUND
By S. C. Turnbo
On the night of the 29-30 of June, 1876, an unusually heavy rain fell in Ozark County, Mo., nearly 4 inches of water fell in a few hours and Little North Fork went wild with high water which swept over the creek bottoms and fencing and soil was rushed downstream. The skeletons of Indians and Indian relics were washed up and exposed to view on the farm at the mouth of Brattons Spring Creek. This land had been a camping place for the Indians. Some of the skeletons were found to be on a level with the fire places. Others lay a little below. All the bones were unusually large, much above the average size of the white race and were very brittle or rotten which indicated that they had lain in the ground many years. Apparently the bodies had been dumped in the ground in all kinds of shape. Old timers who said that they had visited this bottom during the first settling up of the country found a thick heavy growth of timber here. But it was never known to be an Indian encampment until after the freshet of June, 1876. Pieces of Indian pottery, arrowheads and war clubs were picked up all over the camp. After the great overflow in the creek on March 25, 1904, which was claimed by some to be 3 feet higher than the rise of 1876, more Indian bones and war impliments were found on this same ground.
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