20 BIG SPRING PRAIRIE. 
Hocking Valley R. R. was built across a portion of 
prairie in 1877-78. After this, the serious prairie fires, 
burning even the soil, became prevalent. 
The first dwelling house was built on the actual 
prairie in the summer of 1901. At present there are 
several dwelling houses upon this area. 
In an interview, Mr. Peter Brayton, a pioneer of 
Springville, whose recollections date back to 1833, 
when Big Spring Indian Reservation was thrown open 
to settlement, stated that, in his boyhood, the prairie, 
which was then known as the Big Prairie in distinc- 
tion from a small prairie of several hundred acres about 
one and a half miles east, was covered with water for 
the greater portion of the year. In Winter and Spring 
there was a continuous sheet of water from Carey to 
Vanlue, a distance of about ten miles. This sheet var- 
ied considerably in width and depth. Except in wet 
years, most of the marsh would dry off considerably in 
late Summer and Autumn. 
A short distance north of the new road just south 
of Springville, there was still a permanent lake, which 
contained from two to four feet of water even in dry 
seasons. It was known as The Lake, although it was 
only about two miles long and twenty to fifty feet wide. 
Beyond this space of clear water, there was a shallower 
portion in which cattails, reeds, and bulrushes grew. 
The body of water was the last remnant of a rapidly 
dying lake. 
The common testimony of several pioneers of this 
region is, that during wet Springs, canoe trips could be 
taken from near the cemetery just north of Carey to 
Springville, and that during the winter the boys would 
skate over this same route. 
Judging from present conditions of level, the above 
statements scarcely seem possible, as the Divide at pres- 
ent occurs along new road No. 1 Map]; and this divide, 
according to the surveyor’s measurement is about eight 
