Is the Myrtle Thicket a key physical feature?

[KY Hiker]

So just where is myrtle growing in the wilds in KY? I always assumed it means laurel/rhodo... but if it truely means myrtle what does it look like and just where does it grow wild? I have had little success finding this anywhere in the woods. Online research has got me no where.... Did myrtle have a different meaning in 1790? Could this be a key to finding the indian stairway and the lighthouse (arch) and and the buffalo rock and thus the mine?

The blooms do not look like laurel in bloom.... the leaves are somewhat similar though...and yea I know, there is a beach named for it! There is a creeping version of it that is a ground cover called periwinkle that is native to KY... any ideas?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrtus

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=myrtle&qpvt=myrtle+&FORM=IGRE

 

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[GreenHorn]

Take a look at this one and see what you think.

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=moce2

 

[KY Hiker]

Thanks, although it lists VA and WVA as native states, KY is not one of them. Wax Myrtle, I can't say whether I have seen this in the wild or not though. Reminds me of Russian Olive by the leaves.

 

[KY Hiker]

A short video on Washington and Filson who were both land speculators in early KY. Interestingly the land owned by Washington was near the land owned by Swift along Rough River according to the Prather book.

 

[Ken S.]

If the Myrtle Thicket wasn't a key physical feature, Why mention it in direction to the mines ??

 

[KY Hiker]

In some of the most common versions of the Journal, Mundy finds the Myrtle thicket after finding the Indian trace which leads to the Indian stair steps which are across the valley from the mine. If myrtle does not grow in KY we have a problem Houston...or...something else is called myrtle in the 18th century.

 

[franklin]

In some of the most common versions of the Journal, Mundy finds the Myrtle thicket after finding the Indian trace which leads to the Indian stair steps which are across the valley from the mine. If myrtle does not grow in KY we have a problem Houston...or...something else is called myrtle in the 18th century.

Myrtle grows in Kentucky. Most dies and comes back up the next year. You can see by Zone 6 in Kentucky that myrtle does grow in the area where Filson and Breckenridge made a Swift Silver Mine Claim to land. Myrtley also grows well along the Red River.

 

[KY Hiker]

Are those cold hardiness zones? If so it will grow and live where planted, but in 1761 was it native to KY? That is my question. If it was not native then what were they calling Myrtle? A thicket to me means at least waist high and tangled. The ground cover periwinkle grows to about 12 inches, not hardly tall enough to be a thicket. Many times I have read the journal in the past and just assumed Myrtle was Mt Laurel because a thicket of that is VERY common. But Rhododendren is not Myrtle, I don't think they are related...This is why I ask, is this a key feature to look for? would it still exist? And what would a thicket of it look like? This particular part of the more common version of the Swift Journal is key to finding the mine site and furnace locations. The journal takes you step by step to the mine in this part... finding the Myrtle patch like Mundy had to do, gets you to where you need to be. Apparently the Myrtle is near or along the indian trace, which will lead to the stair steps...

I can tell you I have hiked all over while above the Indian Stairsteps. Up and down that ridge in the RRG, its mostly wooded with one prominent clearing, people call it the grove now. Most of what grows above the stairsteps is rhodo and blueberry with a smattering of brambles and thorns, and then trees. I recall no myrtle growing there at all, in fact, I don't ever recall seeing it growing in the wild anywhere in the state. This includes the wax myrtle/bayberry listed in a previous post.

 

[franklin]

Just maybe Munday was talking about a clearing or old home place of a Myrtle Bush. Could be she lived there at one time?

 

[KY Hiker]

got me. Mundy a she? An old homestead in the KY wilderness in 1760? I thought Castleman's and Martin's Station were the last settlements on the frontier at that time? Unless there was a wild fire the Myrtle thicket would still have some remnant left I would think.

 

[rgb1]

crepe myrtle is hardy in ohio had some in my yard there is also some growing along river near maysville ky .

 

[franklin]

got me. Mundy a she? An old homestead in the KY wilderness in 1760? I thought Castleman's and Martin's Station were the last settlements on the frontier at that time? Unless there was a wild fire the Myrtle thicket would still have some remnant left I would think.

I wasn't talking about Munday being a she? I was referring to "Myrtle" is not that usually a she name? But if it said Myrtle thickett, then maybe there was a "Thickett" Family that lived there at one time and Munday knew about it. You do know that other people lived out in the wild long before Harman's or Boone or the others. Why not a Myrtle Thickett?

As for women in the wild, I read a story one time of Indians attacking a woman and her children after her husband and men of the area had left. She killed three or four of the Indians. The Indians let her stay there and they told other Indians not to bother her. Her bravery was known in the area and the Indians let her live in peace. She may have been Myrtle Thickett?

 

[KY Hiker]

ROFL.... Myrtle Thickett...did she marry Buddy Hackett? Or was she kin to Rosey Hedges and Too Tall Tina Pines?

 

[Ken S.]

YEP we're lost alright !!!! We gotta find the Myrtle thicket. Truth be told there were probably people hear long before 1760's

 

[KY Hiker]

... and they were more than likely Spanish or French speaking. English colonists long hunted into this area but it was illegal for them to settle there due to treaties of that time with France and Spain.

Sorry Franklin but I found that funny, ' Mundy shouted, I found the myrtle thicket ' not I found Myrtle Thickett ...