Washington County, Missouri
With just 762 square miles and
24,000 residents, Washington
County is among Missouri’s smaller regions. It
was organized in August 1813 from Ste. Genevieve and
named for George Washington. The county seat is
Potosi. The town was named after Potosi, Bolivia, a
silver mining town. “Potosi” is a South American
Indian word for “place of much noise", other
towns in the county are Caledonia, Irondale, Mineral
Point.
Despite its size, the county is big on recreation.
The Berrryman Camp & Trail National Forest is a
24-mile loop through the Mark Twain National Forest.
A variety of Ozark flora and fauna is featured
throughout the trail. The trail starts at Berryman
Campground, the site of a Civilian Conservation
Corps Camp of the same name from 1937 until the
start of World War II.
Local legend has it that the Jesse James gang
frequently camped in a cave near the trail. Other
challenging trails that pass through the county are
the Ozarks Trail, Trace Creek Trail and Moses Austin
Trail. The historic "Trail of Tears", the
route which carried the forced march of the Cherokee
Indians from the Southeastern United States to a
reservation in Oklahoma, passed through the county.
Other places of interest in the region:
|
Big
River
Courtois Creek
Hughes Mountain
Indian Creek
Little Indian Creek
|
Lost
Creek
Mark Twain National Forest
Meramec State Park
Mineral Fork
|
Washington
State Park
Washington State Park Hardwoods Natural
Area
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