Cape Fair Chamber of Commerce

Description

The Cape Fair area was originally inhabited by the Delaware Indians. The first pioneer to the area was Frenchman James Yoachum in 1790, who stayed with the Delaware Indians for a short time. The first settlers were John B. Williams, Zachariah Henson and Elijah Todd families who came from Tennessee. They arrived on Christmas Day, 1835 and settled at the mouth of Flat Creek and James River. William T. Stone arrived about the same time, and it was his family that the county was later named after. Of vital importance to the civil war, they built a powder mill across Flat Creek. It was the first gunpowder mill west of the Mississippi River. Bat Guano, a key ingredient of gunpowder, was mined from a nearby cave in what is now known as Bear Den Cove. Cape Fair soon became an industrial and social center for miles around, boasting a powder mill, a sawmill, gristmill, blacksmith shop, distillery, cotton gin and general store. The name Cape Fair was derived from an Indian interpretation of the point where Flat Creek and the James River join. " Perfect Cape" or " Fair Cape", hence "Cape Fair". Cape Fair was the first permanent settlement in the county, and served as county seat until 1851, when Stone County was formed, and Galena was officially named the county seat. The original settlement was located on the banks of Flat Creek just above where it meets the James River, now known as Point 15 on Table Rock Lake. The settlement was flooded out in 1884, and later moved to its current...

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