In Missouri's central Ozarks, Miller County was organized in 1837 and named for Missouri Governor John Miller. In territory ceded by the Osage in 1808, it was first settled in 1807 by William West, and early pioneers came from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Two major Indian trails ran through the county. Tuscumbia, the county seat, was laid out in 1837 and named for Tuscumbia, Alabama; its site, given by J. B. and J. P. Harrison, had been an Indian trading camp. On Osage River bluffs below Bagnell Dam, Tuscumbia was once a noted river port where a number of steamboats were built. French explorer Charles Du Tisne crossed the county south of the Osage River in 1719, and Zebulon M. Pike's southwest expedition camped along the river in 1806. During the Civil War, minor skirmishes and guerrilla raids halted county growth. Lead mining, first begun in the 1850s, continued from the 1870s into the early 1900s, while vast timber resources were harvested. In 1882, a branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad was built to Bagnell, then a leading railroad tie shipping point, and in 1903 the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was built through northern Miller County. The county, through which the Osage River flows, became a resort, farm, and lumber area. Bagnell Dam, which formed Lake of the Ozarks, was built on the Osage River in the county by Union Electric Company of Missouri from 1929 to 1931. Iberia, laid out south of the Osage River in 1860, was home to Iberia Academy, later a junior college, from 1890 to 1951, established by G. Byron and Mable White Smith. Other towns include Ulman, Brumley, Saint Elizabeth, Olean, Eldon, Etterville, Kaiser, and Lake Ozark. Early schools included Miller County Institute at Spring Garden, Miller County Academy at Aurora Springs, and Eldon Academy. Places of interest include Bagnell Dam, Lake of the Ozarks State Park, Aurora Springs, Stark Caverns, and Wilson's Cave.