into the Missouri River. Today the Missouri River is much narrower than it was at the time of the cemetery's inception in the early 1800s when it was over 1½ miles wide at this point. Today this cemetery is almost two miles north of the banks of the Missouri River. This cemetery was used for burials for the 150 year period from 1804 to approximately 1954, and was also called George Washington Cemetery during that time. Montgomery County had several plantations and slavery was common during the early-mid 1800s. The lowlands surrounding the Loutre River as it approached the Missouri River plain were farmed with hemp and tobacco, primarily with the use of slave labor. An African-American settlement was founded around 1800 commonly called Little Africa on one of the county's highest points at almost 1,000 feet of elevation overlooking the Loutre River near McKittrick. At its peak, having a population of nearly 200, today very little evidence of the rich African-American history remains in this area. The German settlement of Hermann on the opposite bank of the Missouri River ardently opposed slavery and as such the Missouri River made for not just a geographical divide, but also an ideological one. As a result of this position, first adopted in the 1840s, Hermann became a center for the mustering of black troops into the militia for the Civil War. Hermann was well known as a place of safe refuge for fugitive slaves from the surrounding area, and often those fugitives settled at Little Africa surrounding the Loutre River. Present day In July 2000 Cargill Pork, Inc.'s hog farm in Martinsburg, Missouri illegally discharged hog waste from its holding ponds into the Loutre River. The United States Environmental Protection Agency said the release occurred because of improper handling of waste management equipment by Cargill Pork, Inc., a subsidiary of Cargill. After the waste release, which occurred over a five-day period, the EPA said 53,000 fish were killed along a five-mile stretch of the river. Cargill was fined $1.55 million, including $51,000 as restitution for damage to the environment. The Missouri Department of Conservation owns and maintains the Loutre Lick Public Fishing Access (163 acres) 3 miles south of I-70 on Route N (Mineola exit) then three-quarters of a mile on County Road 278. Bass, catfish, sunfish, and crappie are abundant in this section of the river. The forest, cropland, and old