I'm trying to help someone figure out the journal of her ancestor. It was originally written in a sort of shorthand and a transcriber tried to figure it out, and this transcription is what we have to go by. Much of it is written from the Ft Smith/Van Buren area.

One day he wrote (or the transcriber wrote)"...went to Clanes Bottom and stayed with Colonel Desurtes for the first time in many years." Does anyone have any clue where and who this is? I'm thinking Clanes Bottom maybe should be Cane Bottom, referring to Cane Creek in Scott County? No clue on the Colonel.