Based on notes and writings of three individuals who traveled with a band of Spanish Conquistadors and explorers , the first Europeans to see the Arcadia Valley and Pilot Knob would have been Hernando DeSoto and his army as it crossed Missouri in September 1541 . Specifically , the date being September 7 . They reportedly crossed some mountains and came into the region where Ironton is now located . There they found a good salt spring for making of salt cakes . The next day the army 's stragglers caught up to the main body where Pilot Knob is now located . The following day de Soto 's band departed the area , moving towards present day Lesterville . By 1800 members of the Algonquian peoples of Native Americans had moved into the area with a village of the Delaware Tribe established at the base of Pilot Knob . This village existed as late as 1819 . In the late 1830s during the infamous forced relocation march named the Trail of Tears the Cherokee Tribe came through the valley . The completion of the Iron Mountain Railroad all the way to the town of Pilot Knob in 1857 provided easy the transportation of iron ore mined from the Pilot Knob to the growing St. Louis . During the Civil War , with a looming invasion of Missouri by the Confederate Army under the command of General Sterling Price , the Union constructed and manned Ft. Davidson , an earth work fortification near the base of Pilot Knob in the small town of Pilot Knob . In September 1864 the invasion materialized and the Battle of Fort Davidson ( also called '' The Battle of Pilot Knob '' ) was fought in the valley below Pilot Knob
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Pilot Knob (Iron County, Missouri)