Hello, All -- As you know, I have been asking various questons about Coop Prairie, Mansfield, and the Scott/Sebastian County lines. I am researching a fellow, Rev. James Green Walker, whose home was at/near the Evansville Academy, Evansville, Washington Co. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he moved his family to Scott Co. as a temporary measure to be more out of the way of Union/Confederate skirmishes and encounters. They stayed in Scott Co. about 6 months before returning to Evansville. I am trying to pinpoint as exactly as I can where he and his family spent these 6 months because a number of things happened during this time. The Rev. Walker kept a diary, which is MARVELOUS in so many ways, BUT, darn him, he never says WHERE in Scott Co. he and his family lived. So I'm piecing together clues. I have a question for those of you who know the "lay of the land" around Mansfield. He mentions going to Coop Prairie several times -- close enough for a short journey and back -- say, to preach there and then "home" again. But I don't know if he heads west or east or what to get to Coop Prairie from wherever he is living. He had a brother who lived nearby, and I know that this brother shows up in the various censuses in Tumlinson Township and later was buried in the Coop Prairie Cemetery. There are also some other relatives who are buried in Pleasant Grove Cemetery #2 in Abbott. So I know generally where the Walkers spent this 6 months. But here's a quote which you all may be able to help me with. The family was leaving Scott Co. to move back home in Evansville in Washington Co. Diary entry for 11 Sep 1862 "We made a start yesterday for Washington but broke our wagon on Black Jack Ridge and so tarried all day but this morning made an early start and came to Mess place." [I don't know what Mess place is. Maybe it should read "this place."] Then they get to the river but found it too full to ford so they stay at Mrs. Gibson's until 14 Sep when they finally get over the river and they then stay at Cy Foster's for the night. The next day, 15 Sep, they travel some 12 - 15 miles to Natural Dam where he broke the buggy. [He was having a bad time of it!] Finally got home to Evansville on 16 Sep. I suspect that the river he had trouble fording was the Arkansas somewhere around/in Ft. Smith. So if one is at point X and heads for Ft. Smith/Natural Dam **via Black Jack Ridge,** where is point X? Is Black Jack Ridge between Abbott and Mansfield? Does anyone know if he were, in effect, following what is US Highway 71 today? Is it reasonable to assume that US Highway 71 was constructed basically along the same route as the wagon road? Thanks again! Sara in Houston