WALTER MUNDY FARM - Boonsboro, Missouri
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 39° 04.919 W 092° 52.754
15S E 510445 N 4325882
Now known as Boone's Lick State Historic Site.
Waymark Code: WM8QDT
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 05/02/2010
Views: 6
Ahead from Petersburg 0.1 m. on the unmarked graveled road to a county roads which the route follows (L) 1.9 m. to another unmarked graveled road ; right here 1.2 m. to the WALTER MUNDY FARM (L) on which is the BOON'S LICK SPRING. The brackish salt waters of the Lick, bubbling from surface springs, have stained the bare earth a grayish white. The curving hillside (R) Is shaded with giant trees; near the top is a broken monument to the memory of "Joseph L. Morrison, son of Major James Morrison of St. Charles, Born Jan. 9, 1817, and died August 10, 1833." Local tradition claims young Morrison fell into a kettle of boiling salt water and was scalded to death.
The springs were included in a Spanish grant of 400 arpents to James Mackey, May 21, 1797, who surveyed the claim in 1804. It is believed that Daniel Boone visited the springs soon after 1800 and made salt here, and that the name, Boon's Lick, was given for that reason. Whether or not this be true, it is known that his sons, Nathan Boone and Daniel Morgan Boone, together with the Morrisons of St. Charles bought a dozen 2o-gallon salt kettles ft St. Louis in 1806, transported them to the Lick, and began the manufacture of salt. With these, and with 40 additional kettles bought the following year, 6 men were able to extract 100 bushels of salt a week. A keelboat brought supplies every two weeks and returned to St. Louis with the salt. Indian Philips, thought to have been one of Mason's gang of robbers from the lower Mississippi, supplied game for the salt boilers. William Becknell was in charge of the operations here before the beginning of his overland journey to Sante Fe in 1821.
Cheap transportation destroyed the Boon's Lick salt market. Thirty years of spasmodic attempts failed to revive the industry. Eventually, W. N. Marshall, said to have been "a sea faring man," suggested that the springs be dammed to form a lake in which oysters and salt water fish could be raised for Middle Western markets. Unfortunately for local epicures, the venture collapsed because--this was the reason given--"no fresh water could be found near by In which the oysters could spawn." The low mound near the springs is a relic of the "oyster plan." - Missouri: Guide to the "Show Me" State, Tour 1, pgs 353-354
The farm is now Boone's Lick State Historic Site under the management of Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The site is open to the public from sunrise to sunset. The site has an information kiosk giving the history of the area. Also has a picnic shelter. There is a trail leading down to the salt springs. The monument to Joseph L. Morrison was replaced in 2002 with a new stone.