Favorite Ozarks Places – 20

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Castor River, favorite_places, Fredericktown, Madison County, Ozarks, Shut-ins, swimming holes

Amidon Memorial Conservation Area, Missouri

When I was a kid, our parents would occasionally take my brother and me to what we called the “Castor River swimming hole” or alternatively, the “Castor River Shut-Ins.” Mom, as usual, fretted about our safety, while we boys just enjoyed the sweep of water through the tight passages of rock, bouncing downstream to where Dad waited to catch us.

There are a couple of swimming holes on the upper Castor, a river that receives much less attention than its more famous cousins to the west, and I honestly can’t remember which one we visited in my childhood. But one of the most unexpectedly beautiful places in the Ozarks is what is now the Amidon Memorial Conservation Area in northeast Madison County.

If you’ve visited Elephant Rocks, you know the remarkable pink granite that crops up in places across Iron, St. Francois, and Madison counties. At Amidon, that pink is lighter than at other places, far more sculpted, and shaped by the flow of water into a remarkable display.

Why doesn’t the Castor get more attention? It’s shorter, for one thing, and it quickly traverses from dramatic shut-ins to a relatively uninteresting, muddy stream, with lots of debris and agricultural runoff. But for several stretches, it’s as beautiful as anywhere in the Ozarks. Its lack of fame means that you’ll probably have the place almost to yourself, although do note that most of the ownership along the Castor is private. So you have to look for access points. The pink granite is unearthly in its strange beauty, and the flooding and debris has created a rich alluvium that lends to the growth of wildflowers in abundance.

I don’t think I’d let my kids bounce down through the shut-ins, though, unless the water was pretty low.

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Favorite Ozarks Places – 17

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caves, favorite_places, Ha Ha Tonka, history, karst topography, Lake of the Ozarks, springs

Ha Ha Tonka Spring

I generally avoid anything having to do with the Lake of the Ozarks, because it is so garish, messy, and utterly overcommercialized. But I have to admit that there are some beautiful scenic areas in that region, despite the overgrown forest of advertising signs that often obscures it.

One of those areas is Ha Ha Tonka, now a state park. Ha Ha Tonka was given its name by an early promoter who claimed that it was an Osage phrase that meant “laughing waters,” and if you believe that I’ve got a bridge to sell you. What it is, though, is a magnificent spring (pictured above) and a number of geologic features that are truly memorable.

It’s a wonderful place to see karst topography in its many forms. Water flowing through dolomite, with a sandstone overlay, has created a natural bridge (pictured below) and a deep chasm that connects the spring to the lake below. Before the lake, the spring fed the Niangua River, but nowadays that’s all beneath the surface. The remnants of a mill dam are still present, so one can easily imagine the community that existed there in the 19th and early 20th century.

The natural bridge at Ha Ha Tonka

The chasm is quite spectacular, similar to Grand Gulf farther south, and hiking trails wind through it in all directions. I wouldn’t recommend some of the trails for casual hikers; the rocky, rugged terrain makes for a tough clamber in some places. But there’s a paved path from the lake that nearly reaches the spring, until the rocks close in.

Most of the park’s visitors, though, visit the ruins of a big old house that overlooks the chasm from the north side. This mansion, optimistically referred to as a “castle” by the parks people, was begun in 1905 by a rich guy from Kansas City. He was killed in a car wreck the following year, but his sons continued with the construction of the house, which probably did have the best view in Missouri. It burned in 1942. I get the impression that the ruins, which the state parks people have stabilized, are preserved to maintain their current picturesque level of ruination. After all, it would lessen their attraction if they just went ahead and fell down.

Ha Ha Tonka spring, Castle in distance

As for myself, I’ve never been much interested in the opulent structures built by rich people, ruined or otherwise. The views from up there are excellent, though. Before the state obtained the property, Ha Ha Tonka was run as a private tourist attraction, with all kinds of fanciful names for the geographic features. The creation of the lake inundated some of those features, sparking a long legal battle between the owners and the electric company. The story of Ha Ha Tonka, both the geologic story and the story of the various humans fighting to profit from it, is told in excellent detail in Leland and Crystal Payton’s Damming the Osage.

Favorite Ozarks Places – 15

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Black River, favorite_places, Missouri, Ozarks, parks, rivers, Sutton Bluff

Sutton Bluff

OK, the Forest Service calls it “Sutton Bluff,” but we always called it “Sutton’s Bluff” – I don’t know which is correct. It’s on the West Fork of the Black River, a dozen miles west of Centerville, far enough upriver that it’s not really floatable. The river at that point is little more than a creek (see photo below), but by some wonderful stroke of luck, the river has a delightful swimming hole at that spot, with lots of water most of the time, a broad gravel beach, and the Bluff itself rising eighty to a hundred feet above the river.

It’s not as peaceful and quiet as some locations because of a nearby ATV/motorcycle trail, so be forewarned. There’s also a trailhead for the Ozark Trail nearby; I’ll write about the Ozark Trail another time. Because of its isolation, the Sutton Bluff area is well populated with common water snakes and copperheads. Just another word to the wise. I’ve known folks who came across timber rattlers up on top of the bluff as well. Continuing west from Sutton Bluff on the gravel road will take you through one of the longest stretches of uninhabited forest in the state, and that by itself is reason enough to go there!

Photos from the Ozark Trail Association’s website.

Favorite Ozarks Places – 14

Tags

Camdenton, favorite_places, Macks Creek, Missouri, Ozarks

Davis Baskets is the real deal — an old-fashioned “roadside attraction” on U.S. 54 south of Camdenton. Anybody who’s ever driven from the Lake of the Ozarks to Springfield has noticed it, no doubt. You might even have stopped in to use the restroom, and to browse the stacks of comical signs, postcards, hats, plaques, toys, souvenirs, and God-knows-what. And of course baskets.

I’m told that it was founded in 1949 by Delmar Davis, who still runs the place today at 88. I was told all this because if you do stop in, as I did earlier this year (I needed a new hat for float trips), Delmar Davis will start talking to you and will not stop till you are out the door. He’s an immensely friendly gentleman with a million stories and opinions, a World War II veteran with a zest for history. In an era when people just want to reach their destination with as little deviation or delay as possible, Davis Baskets is a reminder that stopping along the way can be as rewarding as getting there.

And just south of Davis Baskets is Macks Creek, where unexpected stops on the highway used to be the town’s primary industry . . . but that’s another story, as they say.

Delmar Davis (photos from the Davis Baskets Facebook page)

More from Roaring River

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favorite_places, Missouri Writers Guild, Ozarks, parks, photography, Roaring River

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Floating

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Black River, books, Current River, favorite_places, Jacks Fork, Missouri, Ozarks, rivers, Ward Dorrance, writing

I haven’t been on a float trip yet this year — in past years, I’ve often been able to get in a spring float, but this year, the timing and the weather haven’t cooperated.

In compensation, here’s a passage from Three Ozark Streams:

“To feel the boat settle into the long, v-shaped approach, viscous, silent, eager; to paddle vigorously an instant along the inside bank where the water is sharp-toothed, hissing; to shoot down a lane of white-caps (standing erect in the prow, my field of vision filled by the rush, by the foam of the broken river); this is to experience a moment of absolute and exquisite excitement — joy by which afterwards I may gauge the importance of much else.”

 

 

 

Roaring River – 2

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favorite_places, Missouri, nature, Ozarks, photography, Roaring River, springs

This gallery contains 2 photos.

I have written earlier about Roaring River here. Just visited there again this week, and was struck once again by …

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The Environment and the Eleven Point

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Eleven Point, environment, favorite_places, Missouri, nature, Ozarks, parks, springs, Willow Springs

Anybody who has ever floated the Eleven Point River can testify that it is a wild, lonesome, and highly scenic stretch of water. It’s little more than a creek until Greer Spring comes in (there’s an image of Greer Spring in the background here, and I need to write about Greer Spring more).

What many people don’t know, including myself until I crossed it while on a speaking trip a year ago, is that one upper fork of the Eleven Point reaches back all the way to Willow Springs. It’s easily forty miles as the crow flies from Willow Springs to Greer, and given the twists and turns of the river, probably twice as much in river miles.

Not only is the Eleven Point a mere creek, it’s what hydrologists call a “lost” stream. A significant percentage of its water disappears as it flows southeast toward Greer, and sometimes the streambed is little more than dry gravel. Of course, that water doesn’t really disappear; it goes underground, into the many unseen rivers that flow beneath the Ozarks. This underground network of flowing water is what gives the region its many sinkholes and caves, as ground and rock give way to water.

In March, Ken Midkiff of the Sierra Club called our attention to a 33-tank petroleum storage facility in Willow Springs, very near the Eleven Point, that has little or no protection against contamination of the stream if those tanks should ever leak or seep. His article appeared in the Columbia Heart Beat blog. Now, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has picked up the story, in an article by Jack Suntrup.

Willow Springs, Missouri, is not the Chemical Valley of West Virginia, despite the somewhat alarmist comparisons. But on the “better safe than sorry” side, it only makes sense that the EPA should inspect this tank farm and prescribe whatever safety remedies it deems necessary. As the good folks of West Virginia have learned, it’s a lot easier to protect your watershed before a disaster than to try to clean up and restore afterward.

Here’s a map of the Eleven Point watershed.

Favorite Ozarks Places – 13

Tags

Black River, favorite_places, Markham Springs, Missouri, Ozarks, rivers, springs

Markham Springs

(photo from US Forest Service)

Markham Springs is off Missouri 49 between Williamsville and Ellsinore (much closer to Williamsville). When I lived in Piedmont, long ago, I visited here occasionally. It has a beautiful mill pond, as you can see, with six different springs that feed around five million gallons of water into it each day. There’s another spring, a “bubble spring” with a constant flow of air bubbles, nearby.

When I visited the spring years ago, the house seen above was a vacant wreck. It had been built in the late ’30s and early ’40s, but when its owner sold the land to the Forest Service in the ’60s, the house was left empty and began to deteriorate. But in 2010, the Forest Service, recognizing the historic value of the house, entered into an agreement with a group of craftspeople. They restored the house at no cost to the government, and in return they get to use it for a vacation home. When they’re not using it, they rent it out.

I have very fond memories of walking the campground loops at Markham Springs. Its remoteness and its lack of developed facilities make it comparatively unfrequented, but it’s a beautiful location along the Black River. And any day I get to dip my feet in the Black River is by definition a good day.

Poetry, memory, mystery

Tags

Current River, favorite_places, Missouri, nature, Ozarks, poetry, St. Louis, writing

photo by Kbh3rd, uploaded from Wikimedia Commons

I had the great pleasure of spending Tuesday on the Current River, and while drifting along, I remembered a poem I had published in Ozark Review many years ago. Poetry has an amazing capacity to stick in the mind; I hadn’t read this poem in years, maybe decades, but I could still remember its last few lines.

But I couldn’t remember who wrote it! Looked it up this morning and remembered that it was James S. Harris, who was from Kirkwood. Then I remembered further that he and I had enjoyed a long lunch one afternoon in the late ’70s, talking about the Ozarks, publishing, and poetry.

Oddly enough, I can’t find any information about what became of him. His poem was a lovely, finely structured piece that used a float trip on the Current River as a metaphor for the fragility of life, so I can’t imagine that it was the last thing he wrote. At the time of publication (1978), he was 32, so that would make him around 67 by now. But I can’t find any listings of books. If anybody has information about the creator of this lovely poem, please let me know! Here’s the poem, which was entitled “The Tree Will Fall”:

It always seemed to me —

the clear green pool, the leaning tree —

as changeless as an illustration in

my copy of Huckleberry Finn,

as the crack in the churchyard wall.

And the stream itself, more

each time like the perfect time before,

till at last the landmarks of a float trip seemed

the features of a faithful dream,

endless, vivid, still.

And yet I have wakened to find

the president’s men have all resigned;

arteries a pinpoint more congealed

and a mind, therefore, finally sealed

that once outshone them all.

There is oil, I hear, beneath —

Canoers, hang another wreath —

and I see the gap the fissure will become,

for as surely as the Current runs,

the sycamore will fall.