any places to go williamson county

[blessingspoint]

I am new here and was wondering if there is anywere is williamson county that would be a good place to start? Anyone have any good links on here to get me started?

 

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[Lowbatts]

Wish I could make it down to that part of the state! The historic old road from Kaskaskia to Lusk's Ferry, trails that date from Spanish and English explorers and of course outlaw stories that predate and include the civil war era really make great finds possible. Assuming you know the county well enough, and what areas will be permissable to detect and which ones won't, start doing the homework on the early trade routes through there.

Here's the link to the original land plats of Illinois:
http://landplats.ilsos.net/Flash/Welcome.html
You'll need to load a MrSid viewer to use this but I strongly recommend this as a starting point in learning the early routes through the county.

Then you can check out this site also, which is an aerail survey from 1938-39 and gives great insight into the development up to that key era, just prior to after the WWII growth period:
http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/nsdihome/webdocs/ilhap/county/

Then also visit the ILGenWeb site for Williamson County at:
http://williamson.ilgenweb.net/

Lastly, if you think you have found a route that may be plowed under and hard to locate, you might want to check availability of satelite IR photos from the USGS, I have these for several areas nearby and they are real eye openers. you can find homesites and roadways, even those plowed under for the last hundred years in most cases.

Remember to look at river crossings where the modern roads are or may be offset from the old trails, find those shallow crossings and work those areas where travelers may have camped nearby. Given the number of small and medium waterways through the county, there must be numerous such places. A lot of the old sites there have not been developed over, but may appear overgrown.

Of course you can overlay modern maps over these old maps for help in identifying those remaining possible hotspots. Spend more than a little time looking for the early records of the early settlers and the killings on the trails there abouts by both natives and outlaws and you will be ready to hit the ground running. Check all rules that apply in the case of state properties, parks, conservation areas, etc. with the local supers there. Stay off of Federal land if any is present. And get the okay from the locals to hit there backyards, especially the big backyards that have old roads and trails plowed under.

I give better lessons after you've paid in me in gold, so get hunting.

 

[bomber]

LOWBATTS comes thru........again

 

[John Deere Digger]

Thanks Lowbatts, those are some great sites. I have some land along the old Kaskaskia Rd do you have any good sites for this rd. Have been looking but not been sucessful. thanks again for the map sites.
JDD

 

[Lowbatts]

Haven't dived into that area that deeply, but I'd love to do a looky see sometime. You kinda know where people would stop to water the oxen or cattle, flat, dry ground near a waterhole or soft crossing. Get a feel for someone traveling 2 to 4 miles an hour and check the distances between towns, there's a mid day stop distance between towns or settlements, an overnight stop and pretty much always a whole day Sunday stop near a parsonnage or early church.