Editing Dent County, Missouri (section)

===Exploration and settlement===
[[Henry Rowe Schoolcraft]] was one of the earliest visitors to the area that would become Dent County, which was then unmapped and unknown. In 1818, Schoolcraft and Levi Pettibone left [[Potosi, Missouri]] on an adventure that often left them hungry, lost, lonely and in danger. They first headed west from Potosi on a trail that is now followed by Highway 8, then turned south through southern Dent and [[Shannon County, Missouri|Shannon]] counties, where Schoolcraft found the Current River, "a fine stream with fertile banks and clear, sparkling water.” Today the river attracts tourists who launch canoes by the thousands during the summer to enjoy the fast-moving water of the Current and Jack's Fork Rivers in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. Schoolcraft traveled to the area of today's [[Springfield, Missouri]], then went east on White River and finally back to Potosi, completing a journey of 89 days.

The White River trail had long been used by Native Americans in Dent County. It later became one of the branches of the [[Trail of Tears]], which saw many [[Cherokees]] pass through on their forced trek to [[Oklahoma]]. Some stopped in Dent County and many old families take pride in their Cherokee heritage. The "trace" wound from Sligo southwest to the Ephraim Bressie Farm on Spring Creek north of Salem. It left the county about the present town of Maples.

The first [[White (U.S. Census)|white]] settler was George Cole, who cleared a farm on the Meramec near Short Bend. It was later the site of the Nelson Mill. An abundance of waterpower and difficulty of transportation made mills important in the settling of the new land. Some of the first settlers came in 1829, mostly to the Meramec, Spring Creek and Dry Fork valleys. Land could be purchased for five cents or less an acre. William Thornton, Daniel Troutman and Daniel M. Wooliver were among the 1829 settlers, followed by William Blackwell, Nicholas Berardy, Elisha Nelson, Jerry Potts, Ephraim Bressie, Robert Leonard, Abner Wingfield, Lewis Dent, Wilson Craddock, Thomas Higginbotham, Jack Berry, Silas Hamby, Smith Wofford, Turquill McNeill, Dr. John Hyer, Samuel Hyer and David Lenox.