Wow, that is real good information. Thank you. Ask and you sometimes receive :-) If you go to current mile marker 482 and go ENE from the river you hit the bluff near where Mill Creek comes out. I'm assuming Mr. Banks home was somewhere in this area: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=39.95972&lon=-95.16917&datum=NAD27&s=50&size=l It was probably somewhere along that bluff line within 2 miles of that little red +. My maps don't show exactly where mile marker 482 is, but I think it is basically here: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=39.93389&lon=-95.20111&datum=NAD27&s=50&size=l Of course, the river has changed course since the old days. That's the one I really wanted to find, but now I'm wondering if I could get you to pick another one to work on :-) Hemmes Landing was the first village in Holt county. Obviously along the river somewhere. Oh, I just did some research and now I now see that it is in now in Nebraska due to movement of the river. I guess it was somewhere near here: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=40.24306&lon=-95.49167&datum=NAD27&s=50&size=l More info: Hemmes Landing is the first attempt to start a town in this part of the county. It was inaugurated by Henry Hemme, another Hanoverian, who settled in the county in 1844. This settlement, which was known as Hemme's Landing, was about two miles west of the present (1882) site of Corning. This site is now (1882) within the limits of the State of Nebraska, and the Missouri River flows within three-fourths of a mile of Corning, and considerably to the eastward of the spot where the old town stood. Hemme's Landing was one of the most important trading points between St. Joseph and Council Bluffs. The first merchant who sold goods at the landing was David Greer, who commenced business there in 1845. (Several transactions later, Conrad Grab became by purchase the owner of the store--in 1864 or 1865.) By this time the encroachments of the river threatened the entire destruction and obliteration of the place. Most of the inhabitants left, taking with them their buildings...Grab, however...hung on till almost the last moment, and finally, in the fall of 1868, moved eastward to the site of what is now the town of Corning. (--History of Holt County, p. 287.) Hemme's Landing is no longer listed. Mike Name: ST. MARY Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 204' X 35' X 4.5' Size: Power: 14's-6 ft., 2 boilers. Launched: 1855, St Louis, Mo. Destroyed: 1859, Sept. 4, Hemmes Landing, Mo. R., snagged, broke in two, lost. Area: principally, Mo. R., some work on Miss. R. Captains: 1855, Joseph LaBarge 1859, Master, Mot Morrison when snagged. Comments: 1956, June 4, left Omaha with 900 passengers bound upriver. Some 735 were Mormons of whome only 50 took cabin passage. The rest were deck passengers. This was largest passenger list ever on a Western river steamboat. Aug., returned with 22,000 buffalo robes, 2 ponies, 2 grizzly bears, 2 buffalo calves and some strange looking birds. : 1857, May 24, The Diary of E.F. Beadle places her stopping at Omaha with government stores aboard, passing upriver. MOHOLT-D-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > Subject: Re: [MOHOLT] Location of Holt County Items > Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 21:16:41 -0600 > From: "Elizabeth Burnsides" <lizb@asde.net> > To: MOHOLT-L@rootsweb.com > > Probably this is your Banks Big Springs: > > Info from "The St. Joe Road",by Jacqueline A. Lewin and Marilyn S. Taylor; A > St. Joseph Museum publicaton: > William Banks operated a ferry, on the Missouri River, at about mile marker > 482. He chose the site, for his home, a couple of miles from the ferry > crossing, because of a big, gushing spring that was located there. > Reputedly, it was one of the largest, purest springs in the Missouri River > bluffs between St. Joseph and Council Bluffs. This house, is constructed of > two and one-half foot thick blocks of native limestone. (The remains of the > building are still standing in 2004) > > This is located south of Forest City.