Big Spring Sketch

Photo from the Armstrong Archives

Local artist Ruth Beall (1913-2002) drew this sketch of what Harrodstown would have looked like in 1774.  The first structures were simple log cabins close to the Big Spring near East Factory Street, behind the Mercer County School buildings.  A wagon path was cleared following the course of the Town Creek, which originated at the Big Spring, and ran through town past the site where the first fort was built in 1775.

According to the Chinn Archives, George Chinn believed that this illustration was in reverse because the negative for the photograph of the sketch was in reverse. However, there is no way to prove this theory and Chinn used the above illustration in his book Through Two Hundred Years.