ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



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Dr. W. S. Swan— Photo. 



OLD FORT MASSAC 



are stone walled graves, are not uncommon. In the lowlands of Pope 

 County near the Bay Creek, mounds of large size yield pottery and other 

 pre-historic remains in great abundance. Only last summer the Ohio river 

 by a shift of current was cutting away an Indian burying ground bringing 

 to view portions of skeletons. 



The Old Fort Massac at Metropolis is the only one of many places of 

 permanent interest in this end of the state over which the state has taken 

 control. What was a few years ago a brush covered bluff being encroached 

 upon by the current of the Ohio is now a beautiful park in which are 

 marked the ramparts of the old fort. I remember when I was unable to 

 find the outline of the fort for the undergrowth and when an old wooden 

 drain which led from the interior was projecting from the receding river 

 bank and was being carried away by piece-meal by relic hunters. The route 

 of Clark and his men from Fort Massac to the northwest is now marked. 

 A monument marks the place where he emerged from the swamps of the 

 Cache river at Indian Point in the southern part of Johnson County. A 

 branch of the Logan-Lee Highway is marked to cross the Ozarks. Further 

 than this, little has been done to even mark the site of features for which 

 future generations will search in vain. The old stage routes are being 

 forgotten and lost. The rich soil and valuable mineral deposits insure 

 much greater density of population and more intensive development of 

 the country in the future. In but a short time these almost inaccessible 

 points of beauty and interest will be reached by good roads and trolley 

 lines. In the present decade some effort should be made to put a number 

 of these most attractive tracts under the public care at a time when their 

 purchase would incur but little expense. There is no reason why the 

 Illinois Audubon Society should not find here a field awaiting recognition 

 of its value as a refuge for wild life and for preservation as a source 

 of pleasure to the coming generations. 



Clarence Bonnell. 



