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The Colonial Days His Bride
Valles Mines, Missouri, U S A

Founded in 1749 by Don Francois Valle.
The Valle Mining Company's 3500 acre property every year absorbs 21,000 tons of carbon dioxide and puts out 14,000 tons of oxygen.
This is enough to meet the needs of 63,000 people. [USDA Forest Facts] Site Map
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Roads of Valles Mines

Mississippi River & Bonne Terre ("MRBT") Railroad sights you would have seen
had you been riding the train on the RR Right of Way.

North

Valles Mines RR Station & Post Office (now at Hwy 67), Flint Rock Mound (where Indians braves made their spearpoints), and the rock shelf that made for Finney Creek's Low Water Crossing.

Buster Crossing

The present Valles Mines Road went through Buster Crossing to French Village and Ste. Genevieve. Once known as the "Hillsboro-Farmington Road", Y Highway today actually begins at Buster Crossing, goes up the mountain above the former village of Tunnel Station and over the top to the Halifax Post Office Road, closed by Wally Crowe decades ago. "French Village Road", as it was once known was the north fork and the south fork, cut by the construction of Hwy 67 near the Radio Tower, was much older. Where it went we are still trying to find out but it heads to Ste. Gen.


All that remains of the road to Tunnel Station is what we call The "Mud Road" starting at the Upper Lake. It also served as a haul road down from the mountain to The Upper Lake's Ore Washer, long since gone, while The Lower Lake remains relatively untouched as a beaver lake.

Tunnel Station:

The Cemetery at Tunnel Station was served by a now abandoned County Road that connected to the Silver Springs Baptist Church. Tunnel Station was also served by a now abandoned County road to Halifax P.O.  Silver Springs Road and Berry Road Connection was at the railroad station where the MRBT crossed Silver Springs Road, just up the tracks from Tunnel Sta. past the Calzine Zinc furnace site and digs for our signature Drusy Quartz mineral. To get to Ste. Gen. from Valles Mines, you could take the "The Rock Road" past the vista at Look Out Mountain/Mt. Zorro/"Hill 1133" and whiile today you would come put at teh Radio Tower, then you wold have connected to a road to Ste. Gen.


Vinegar Hill Road South once served the Garottee Mines with its textbook example of the Eminence/Gasconade Ledge and joins Valles Mines Road. The Garottee Mine lies near the ruins of the former village of Prospect School, whose foundation still protrudes. Just a few hundres yards before that intersection, the famous Selma Road, the renown late-1700's haul road out of the Lead Belt, comes in from the south and continues to the Upper Lake, although now in bad repair.