The first European settlers arrived in this area six years before Missouri became a state in 1821. In 1815 people from Kentucky and Tennessee arrived in the Sandy Hook area. The next year a group of settlers arrived in the Lupus area. Over the years German and Swiss immigrants with their skills and traditions arrived from Ohio and St. Louis. The Missouri River was the main route of immigration by steamboat. High open prairie ridge tops allowed wagons to move settlers into the High Point area.
 The settlement display shows some of the important tools used by these resourceful people to build log homes and open farmlands. An axe, rifle and knife were very important - as was a dog that could hunt. Cooking pots, Dutch ovens and skillets were necessities. Building tools such as a broadaxes for squaring logs were used in cabin building. A froe was used for splitting durable white oak wooden shakes (shingles). Augers bored holes for inserting rot resistant locust pegs to hold the building's beams together and an adz smoothed out the rough surface of split wood. All of these iron tools were made by the important blacksmith. Shovels were a prize possession and were worn out digging wells for water and cooling foods. Vegetable seeds were carefully collected and seeds from successful plants were passed down to family members. These seeds carried the name of the person who grew and carefully preserved them. Settlers brought their seeds with them.Â
 Deer were hunted for food and clothing. Deer hides were shipped to St. Louis where they were sold for one dollar. Hence, the term for a dollar became known as a "buck." Schools, churches, mercantiles and post offices anchored the growing settlements. People became "settled in" and celebrated with fiddle music and homemade pie.