This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/hMB.2ACI/918.1.1 Message Board Post: Chuck, thanks for your reply. I am about half done reading the Clay county section of the mentioned book, which I checked out from the library. Last weekend, my wife and I drove to Minneville and found the entrance to Hughes road blocked with concrete barriers, and the road appeared long overgrown. I highly recommend a drive through this area if you enjoy plummeting into a world removed, a trip into the past. Aerial photography of the road shows that it is now nothing more than a faded trail, and the bridge over Big Shoal Creek is washed out. Minaville was alternately known as Lindenman. There is a road by that same name through town, and also a Doniphan Road, obviously named for Gen. Andrew Doniphan or one of his descendents. Here is an online map of Clay county in 1890: http://www.kclibrary.org/localhistory/zoom.cfm?ImageID=10358&action=go <http://www.kclibrary.org/localhistory/zoom.cfm?ImageID=10358&action=go> On this map, I have determined (gauging distance from marked streams) that a road leading north from Birmingham to Liberty follows the current approximate route of Hughes Road. This must have been a bustling route during the heyday of the railroad junction at Minaville, and the promise of archaeological and historical information around Hughes road is tantalizing. It's removed from the bustle of development, and the closing of the road can only help preserve any evidence of the past that may still linger. At the north end of the road, in southern Liberty, is a convent, but other than that, few business or homes are on this road. I have yet to drive this section of the road. Also, I had mentioned Daniel Hughes, but I actually meant Andrew Hughes, his ancestor. Thanks again. Brady Boyd