The Snelson Brinker Cabin, which served as the Old Crawford County Courthouse in 1834, burned down July 4, 2017. Very little remains of the historic Missouri structure in current Crawford County, located eight miles west of Steelville on Highway 8, and two miles east of Maramec Spring Park-Massie Iron Works. Snelson Brinker Cabin was the oldest building in the old Crawford county. It was built for Levi Lane Snelson in 1824. John B. Brinker purchased the house and land Feb. 21, 1837.

The character of the property has drastically changed with the rubble around the chimney, where now the hearths of both sides of the chimney are exposed to the sun. The shake roof is gone, the doors and windows are gone, and most of the logs are charred, with the east and west wall leaning.

So, if your deed is located in Township 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, West of Potosi and east of Jerome, and if you live in Meramec, Norman, Osage, Spring Creek East or Spring Creek West, Short Bend or Watkins Township, Snelson Brinker most likely served as the courthouse for the residents before Dent and Phelps County were carved out of old Crawford County.

The Pete and Patti Vanetta family were volunteer cabin and property keepers for over a quarter of a century until recently. Pete, called “The Mountain Man,” had his heart and soul in the property; protecting it from vandals and parties, especially on holidays like Halloween, Christmas and the Fourth of July until recently when the beautiful site grew up in weeds and the vegetation became overgrown and essentially abandoned.

The Vanettas made a showplace of the property. People visited from all over the world. Bikers would take a break. School buses would pull in with school kids and unload. Jim McDaniels, retired Salem public school driver, said the students would spend time looking at everything, and then go to Maramec Spring Park-Massie Iron Works for a picnic lunch. Weddings took place there. Family picnics were held. People met there in secret.

Aaron Mahr, superintendent, National Park Service National Trails Office, from Santa Fe, New Mexico, certified Snelson Brinker Cabin and Maramec Spring Park-Massie Park Service on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trails in October 2006.

Missouri Chapter Trail of Tears Association President Deloris Gray Wood and the Dent County Historical Society arranged the certification and the ceremony. Both sites were special places for Wood and her late Husband, Dr. Thomas W. Wood, who had lived less than five miles west of the cabin in the late 1980’s. Maramec Spring Park was in section one of the Maramec Township on Highway 8, and Wood lived in section three on Highway 68. Tom Botkins, Boss, was honored at the certification ceremony for the work he had done on the Hildebrand Route in Iron and Reynolds counties.

One could always visit 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, without having to pay a cent to take a walk or visit inside the cabin or take a photo of the cultural resources on the property like the smokehouse above the fruit cellar, toilet, or a walk up to the cemetery.

More than 10,000 Cherokees were removed across old Crawford County in 1838-1839, passed Snelson Brinker Cabin as a witness house or camped on the Brinker property or camped in the valley on both sides of Meramec River, which is just west and down the hill from the cabin in what now is the Crawford and Phelps county line

The B B Cannon Detachment camped at the Maramec River Dec. 5, 1937; it is the group that established the Northern Route of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. It was the group that was removed by the military before the Cherokees started removing their own people in the fall of winter of 1937-38 in what became known as the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

Dr. Steve Belko, executive director of the Missouri Humanities Council, invited interested parties July 12 to look at and study the chard remains of the Snelson Brinker Cabin to gather preliminary ideas on how to salvage the history and place.

Dr. Steve J. Dasovich, division chair, social and behavioral sciences, program director, Archaeology, St. Charles; and Erin N. Whitson, doctoral student, archaeology, Binghamton University, State University of New York, a Steelville native, did a preliminary site evaluation looking at the chard logs and remains of the Snelson Brinker Cabin. Wood and board member Dr. William ‘Bill’ Ambrose, Jefferson City, were on hand to assist in the evaluation.

Later in the summer, the above group plans to meet up with Mike Taylor, cultural resources, National Park Service National Historic Trail, Santa Fe, New Mexico; a team from Middle Tennessee State University Center for Historic Preservation; Dr. Carroll Van West, director of the center; and Amy Kostine after this group does a needs assessment of what remains of the cabin.

To learn more about the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail go to nps.gov/trte or the Trail of Tears Association at nationaltota.com or the Missouri Chapter Trail of Tears Association, contact Deloris Gray Wood, president at 573 729-2545.