The route between the Skillet and Little Wabash may have been either one of the two courses mentioned, not over five miles apart, and running parallel to each other. The northern passed through the southern portion of Clay County, the southern through the northern portion of Wayne. There were two encampments between the Petit Fork and the Little Wabash; if the northern route was pursued, these camps were near Xenia and Clay City in Wayne County; if the southern route was followed, the camps were near Blue Point and Mount Erie in Wayne County. Bowman's record for the twelfth is: "12th. Marched across Cot plains;[1] saw and killed numbers of buffaloes. The road very bad from the immense quantity of rain that had fallen. The men much fatigued. Encamped on the edge of the woods. This plain or
- ↑ No explanation of "Cot plains" was offered to Mr. Draper by his Illinois correspondents. If the present writer be allowed a pure guess it would be that "Cot" was the American spelling of the French Quatre, "four;" "Cot plains" would then be a "Four Mile Prairie" east or northeast of Skillet Creek. The Clay County route cut off a corner of Romaine Prairie just here—which may have been known as "Four Mile Prairie" in earliest days. It is not known that such was the case.
