Corkery, Missouri

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Corkery is an unincorporated place in Dallas and Laclede counties, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The GNIS classifies it as a populated place. [1] The now extinct community is located on a ridge surrounded on three sides by an entrenched meander of the Niangua River which is about 300 feet below the ridgetop. The location is only accessible by road from Laclede County. [2]

The immediate area is known today as a resort destination for canoeing and camping, north of the popular recreational region of Bennett Springs.

A post office called Corkery was established in 1893, and remained in operation until 1944. [3] The community was named after either Mike Corkery, a local merchant, [4] or Ed Corkery, a millwright who came to the area in 1863 to install millworks and ended up staying, opening a store, and becoming the first postmaster. [5]

Corkery was once a thriving town and became the main crossroads for the region "because of the natural ford which people crossed by foot, horseback and wagon." The timber industry and tie rafting along the Niangua River and other traffic "made mail service a necessity." [6] [7]

Today, only ruins remain: "...the bridge piers, the graveyard, the graffitied building, the spring house, the crumbling cement retaining wall against the bluff, the shop building foundations, the general store steps...." [6]

The Corkery Cemetery Preservation Society is preserving the cemetery here. [8]

A low bridge across the Niangua River existed for a time before it was washed out. Construction began in 1918 on a high bridge on Jugtown Road out of Leadmine that would have crossed the Niangua River near here, at Low Gap. The bridge was supposed to help renew the economy but was never finished; its tall piers remain, a topic of conversation for the hundreds of canoeists who pass by annually. [6]

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References

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Corkery
  2. ↑ Eldridge West, Missouri, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1982
  3. ↑ "Post Offices". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Dallas County Place Names, 1928–1945 (archived)". The State Historical Society of Missouri. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016. Retrieved September 25, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ↑ Skinner, Glenn (1979). The Big Niangua River. Cassville, Missouri: Litho Printers. pp. 111–112.
  6. 1 2 3 "Springfield-Greene County Library -- Bittersweet". web.archive.org. February 5, 2023. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  7. ↑ Corkery Rediscovered. Article by Rebecca Baldwin in Bittersweet, Photographs by Daniel Hough. Spring 1979.
  8. ↑ "The Corkery Cemetery Preservation Society". The Corkery Cemetery Preservation Society. Retrieved November 8, 2024.

37°47′43″N92°51′41″W / 37.79528°N 92.86139°W / 37.79528; -92.86139


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