The area between Portageville and Clarkton was called the East Swamp. Cypress trees rose eighty feet above the murky waters. Cotton mouth snakes wrapped their shiny bodies around clumps of pigweed; wild grapevines dangled like thick ropes from the canopy. A black curly moss grew in patches on the damp soil thus giving it the name " wool swamp." The cypress of this great virgin forest had never felt the bite of a pioneer axe until the 1800s. Birds filled the air; turtles, frogs, and snakes were thick in the water; panthers and bears prowled the shores.
It was very difficult to cross the swamp. Canoe trails had been marked on fallen trees pointing directions like modern signs. What was needed, however, was a dry road from Portageville to Clarkton. One day a mare and her colt escaped from a pen near the town of Weaversville, which is near Portageville. The owner tracked the mare and colt into the swamp through present-day Gideon and up to Bach, which is now Clarkton. Many people thought the path that the mare and colt took was the best way through the swamp. They created a "dump" road--a road that is built up higher than the surrounding swamp land. People thought a more permanent road would be better. In the mid 1850s a man named Major Henry E. Clark built a plank road. This plank road was a toll road. Prices for crossing were:
The plank road served the area well until the Civil War. In 1862 a Union detachment came up to a cabin just east of Clarkton. Inside were Home Guards sipping on whiskey in front of a fire. One of the men suddenly announced, "I smell a yankee." Moments later the Union detachments fired a few cannon shots into Clarkton. On their way back to New Madrid, the Union soldiers burned large sections of the Plank Road and the bridges so guerillas and confederates could not use the road to follow them.
The residents of Clarkton, Portageville and other surrounding communities wanted the road rebuilt. Funding was difficult, so instead of planks they patched the road with poles. Thereafter, people called it the Pole Road.
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Last up date 4-23-97