R 1261
Elgin, Robert L., 1914-2007.
Research collection, 1960-1993.
Sixty-five folders.
These are the research files of a civil engineer,
surveyor, and historian from St. James in Phelps County, Missouri. The collection includes reports, scale
sketches, and photographs concerning the restoration of various historic sites
in Missouri, charcoal iron furnace sites in Missouri, and prehistoric
petroglyph and pictograph sites in the Missouri Ozarks.
Robert Lewis
Elgin was a native of Platte County, Missouri. He attended the Missouri
School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla, where he graduated in 1937 with a
degree in civil engineering. During World War Two, Elgin was commissioned
Ensign in the U. S. Navy and served in the South Pacific with Seabee battalions
building airfields and base facilities. He retired from the Navy as
commander, USNR. He returned to Phelps County in 1945, becoming director
of operations at Maramec Spring Park for the James Foundation. He made
the first architectural and archaeological surveys of this important early
industrial site in Missouri, and his research and drawings were used
extensively by James Norris in his history of the Maramec Iron Works, Frontier
Iron. Elgin was Phelps County Surveyor for thirty-six years, and in 1962 formed Elgin Surveying and Engineering,
Inc., later owned and operated by his son, Richard L. Elgin. Bob Elgin died in June 2007.
Elgin was
personally and professionally interested in prehistory, native crafts,
industrial archaeology, Route 66, and historic preservation. By virtue of his work at Maramec Spring, he became an expert on charcoal iron furnace technology. He traveled extensively throughout the
northern Ozarks, photographing, measuring, and documenting not only iron
furnaces, but also a wide variety of historic and prehistoric sites. Some of Elgin’s research materials on travel
and tourism have been previously cataloged (see WHMC-R623), as well a large
photograph collection concerning 19th century structures and sites in
Missouri (see WHMC-R1015).
The present
collection consists of three parts. The
first contains reports on historic sites in Missouri authored by Elgin. Most contain site plans or detail drawings;
many have original photographs tipped in.
Many of the reports were issued by Coombs & Elgin, a partnership of
Elgin with Kansas City architect Kenneth E. Coombs. The firm specialized in feasibility reports,
site planning, and rehabilitation plans for historic sites developed as public
parks. The firm did considerable work
for the Missouri State Park Board on sites within the Missouri system including
the First State Capital at St. Charles, the Bingham house at Arrow Rock, Fort
Zumwalt State Park at O’Fallon, Lexington State Park, and Watkins Mill near
Lawson. There are also reports for the
County Court of Jackson County, the Mississippi River Parkway Foundation, and
the city of Alton, Illinois. Coombs
& Elgin dissolved after 1965, but Elgin stayed involved with historic preservation,
preparing a condition report and rehabilitation estimate for the Valle-Rozier
house in Ste. Genevieve in 1969.
The second
section consists of Elgin’s survey of iron mines and charcoal iron furnace
sites in Missouri. Following his studies
of the Maramec Iron Works, Elgin searched out other iron furnace sites on
private and public property in Missouri.
Most of the preliminary research and nearly all of the site visits were
conducted in the 1950s and 1960s, but he continued work on the project over the
years and authored a history of the Nova Scotia Iron Company for the Mark Twain
National Forest (see WHMC-R660) in the 1990s.
Elgin’s work covers the biggest iron-producing sites including Maramec,
Iron Mountain, Nova Scotia, and Sligo, but also smaller, shorter-lived sites including
the furnaces at Brandsville (Howell County), Ozark (Phelps County), and Stellaville
(Franklin County). The files include contain
copies of historic photographs, contemporary views of the sites as Elgin found
them, sketch maps, research notes, and miscellaneous materials. Also included is a report on the Sligo
furnace authored by Richard L. Elgin as a class project in 1965.
The third
section reflects Elgin’s interest in prehistoric sites and his recording of Native
American petroglyphs and pictographs in the Ozarks of Missouri. He was involved with preserving the
petroglyphs at Washington State Park, where he designed the shelter and
walkways, but also recorded a number of lesser-known sites in Crawford,
Franklin, Gasconade, and Pulaski counties. Elgin shared his research on a dozen sites with
Carol Diaz-Granados and James R. Duncan, and received a dedicatory
acknowledgement in their The Petroglyphs
and Pictographs of Missouri (University of Alabama Press, 2000). He also received the Carl Chapman award from
the Missouri Association of Professional Archaeologists for his work. Elgin’s petroglyph and pictograph files
consist of photographs, scale drawings, site notes, and maps of the prehistoric
features.
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