The following article reprinted from Trampe’s Pope County Historical Review, describes the Dixon Springs, IL area during the early 1900’s. I found it interesting and hope you do, too.

     "Up in the hills and hollows about that famous old summer resort, Dixon Springs, mining operations are being carried on industriously day and night when the weather will permit by J. A. Whitesides and Co., a private firm of which Mr. Whiteside, long manager of the Springs, is the principal promoter.
     This section, lying a few miles east of Grantsburg on the Paducah and St. Louis branch of the I. C. railway and within two miles of Renshaw on the Golconda-Reevesville branch, is extremely rocky and picturesque and many a visitor who has roamed over the bluffs about the Springs has felt confident that mineral existed nearby.
     Mr. Whitesides began prospecting early in the year 1902 and finally located what gives every indication of being a rich vein of lead and spar and also bearing zinc.
     For a time the sinking of the shaft was done in a modest way by pick and shovel and horse - power hoist, but now an engine has been installed and a steam hoist has taken the place of the other. The company has been offered very attractive prices for the property more than once but prefer to hold to it and do their own work and reap the benefit of their effort.
     This property is but another example of the unlimited resources of the Pope County mineral fields. Land owners who for years have been able to raise but small crops on the hills have found that below the surface lies wealth untold, only waiting for the miner to bring it to light."

The Dixon Springs State Park covers these acres today. The farmers are still planting and harvesting crops in the surrounding areas and the underground wealth still remains hidden from the light.


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