In Missouri's Ozark Highland, Hickory County was organized in 1845 and named for U.S. President Andrew Jackson, known as Old Hickory. The county lay within the Osage land cession of 1808 and was early known to French trappers. From 1819 to 1832, a Kickapoo Indian reservation stood west of the Pomme de Terre River in the county, and settlers from Tennessee and Kentucky arrived in the late 1820's. Hermitage, the centrally located county seat on the Pomme de Terre, was laid out in 1846-1847 and named for Andrew Jackson's home in Tennessee. South of town, three miles away in a scenic area, construction began in 1957 on Pomme de Terre Reservoir and Dam as a flood control and recreation project. The route of the Butterfield Overland Mail ran through western Hickory County from 1858 to 1861, with a relay and meal station at Quincy and a relay station near Elkton. During the Civil War, the county experienced troop movement, skirmishes, and guerrilla raids. The county's only railroad, the K.C., Osceola and So. (Frisco), was built through Weaubleau in 1898. Hickory County encompasses 410 square miles of rough, hilly timber land and high, rolling prairies and is a producer of poultry, livestock, and grain. Lead and zinc occur in the county, and zinc was mined in the 1890's near Pittsburg and Elkton. Weaubleau, the site of an early settlement in southwest Hickory County, was laid out in 1880 and was first called Haren, and the Weaubleau Christian Institute opened there in 1871. Other communities and towns include Wheatland, laid out in 1869 five miles west of Hermitage; Cross Timbers, laid out in 1871; Preston, laid out in 1857; Pittsburg, settled in the 1840's; Avery, settled in 1838; Elkton, settled in the 1830's; and Quincy, laid out in 1848 at the site of the county's first post office, known as Judy's Gap for blacksmith Samuel Judy. Near Avery at Bone Spring on the Pomme de Terre River, numerous mastodon bones were found in the late 1830's and early 1840's, and one skeleton assembled by St. Louisan Albert Koch was sold in 1844 to the British Museum. An Indian quarry, mounds, and campsites have also been found in the county.