Tour of the Trace Creek Section

We've divided the trail into four sections, starting north to south.  Each page of this tour contains a map and a trail narrative.  You'll find the narrative below each map.  (click here to go to the next page)

Getting Here

We can't hardly give you directions from just anywhere, so you'll have to make your own way to the intersection of Highways C & DD.  It's southwest of Potosi, and this map from Mapquest might help you get this far.  Heading west on C you'll turn right on Highway Z, which soon turns into a gravel road at Palmer.  About a mile later you'll make a left into the Hazel Creek Campground, which is usually marked with a sign (unless some drunken fool has ripped it down).  There is a parking lot a few hundred yards on your right.  The trail crosses the road just north of the lot.  If you come to a circular campground, you've gone too far.

We're Off!

Our adventure begins modestly enough, heading east along the base of a hill.  The trail then emerges onto an open field, which might be a little weedy in the summertime.  You'll soon approach Hazel Creek, and if you're on foot, you might have to shed those boots for a shallow wet-water crossing.  The trail then makes a quick left and passes through an old field which has some fabulous wildflowers in the warmer months. 

Up-'n-Down

Now the trail really begins.  For the rest of your trip you'll be traveling up and down the gnarled, fingery ridges of the eroded Ozark Plateau.  For nearly a billion years this area has alternated between seafloor and exposed landmass.  The seas deposited their limestone by the hundreds of feet, only to have the rains and wind chisel them away.  You're not so much climbing up hills as you are descending gullies!

Between Hazel Creek and Trace Creek you'll make three ridge climbs and descents, and cross two roads.  You'll pass through 80 year-old timber and 20 year-old clear-cuts.  Trace Creek makes a good resting place, and you'll find water if you need it (remember to treat it).

Lead, Tears and Retreat - the 1800's at Hazel Creek

The first settlers came to this area in the 1830's and established a town called Harmony, named after the Harmony Township of Washington County.  They came for the lead, and they found plenty of it.  Settlers poured in from Tennessee and Kentucky to work at the Webster Mines-- backbreaking  work, picking away in lead pits. 

Not long after the town was settled, its residents witnessed the sobering sight of the forced relocation of the Cherokee.  In a trek known as the "Trail of Tears," the Cherokee Nation was marched from Georgia to Oklahoma along several routes, two of which passed through the town of Harmony.  It wasn't the only retreat the residents witnessed-- in 1864, Union troops led by General Ewing passed through the area (then known as Webster) during a a 31-hour, 59-mile retreat from Fort Davidson to Leasburg.

In 1875 the Palmer Lead Company took over mining operations, and the area has been known as Palmer ever since.  Although the lead is gone, you can still see the remains of the Palmer lead furnace towards the rear of the Hazel Creek trailhead parking lot!