HALLEY'S BLUFF, VERNON COUNTY, MISSOURI

 

     Col. Anslem Halley located in this area in about 1839 or 1840.  "Col. Halley, a gentleman of the old school, was a man of some means, a great deal of intelligence and education, and withal of generous hospitality.  His house was a place of much resort in early days."  Much has been written of this area, Col. Halley, and the bluffs, so will not be duplicated here other than to include this brief information from the 1887 History of Vernon County, p. 535-536:

   "The famous locality known as Halley's Bluff is on the south bank of the Osage [River], in this township (nw. ne. sec. 34-38), two miles south of West Belvoir.  It is one hundred feet or more above the level land, and is formed from top to bottom as follows:  A long slope; 30 to 40 feet of gray and buff sandstone, the lower part containing cornerstones (or lumps) of very silicious (sandy) hematite, a species of iron ore; then 16 1-2 feet of slope; then 17 feet of blue and buff sandy shale; then 4 to 6 inches of coal; then 4 feet slope to the river.  The bluff extends along the south bank of the Osage for half a mile and is quite a picturesque and interesting bit of scenery."

 

 

This 1883 sale bill was copied from an old Vernon County Circuit Court Case File pertaining to Gummerson and Phipps dissolving their business partnership.

 

 

Where the Osage Walked by Colette Lefebvre-Davis, The Sunday Herald-Tribune, Nevada Daily Mail, Thursday, November 16, 2006

 

 

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