SONS OF DEWITT COLONY TEXAS DeWitt Colony Expansion: The Burkets, Kents and Zumwalts Site Visit 2001 Cedar Creek in CallawayCo, Missouri, north of Township 45 in which the Burket, Kent and Zumwalt families had homesteads. This is the road Y crossing in the Mark Twain National Forest. Note the modest amount of water compared to the creek on the Burket/Zumwalt homestead areas below.
Missouri farm road 397 off Hwy 63 is a well-graded gravel road which follows Cedar Creek along the areas thought to be within the John Burket and Jacob Zumwalt tracts. Jacob Zumwalt's tract encompassed the sharp southern turn of Cedar Creek toward the Missouri River. (Map courtesy of MapQuest).
At the site where road 397 going west crosses Cedar Creek and then makes a sharp turn left along the creek north is this picturesque iron and wooden bridge built in 1909 by St. Louis Stupp Brothers Bridge Co.
The road continuing straight across the bridge and to the right illustrates the rapid slope of the land which is thought to be where the families built their homesteads to avoid the frequent flooding of Cedar Creek. Local historians say that John Burket's tract was a prime choice for a settler and was one of the few areas untouched by the Cedar Creek flood of 1993.
View of Cedar Creek looking north where it takes the sharp bend south (into the camera) which was on Jacob Zumwalt's tract. If Cedar Creek carried this much water in 1829 when the Burkets, Zumwalts and Kents left for Texas, it is likely that they could load belongings on flatboats or rafts with help from friends and family on the banks of the Creek near their doorsteps and link up with the Missouri River.
SONS OF DEWITT
COLONY TEXAS |
