ShareText and Photos by Jo Schaper

A couple weeks ago when I went to Shannon County for the Current River public meeting, we stayed over because Eugene had work to do on the way home at Montauk on Sunday.
He and Steve Bost, the naturalist there, went off on some A/V maintenance issue, leaving me to [...]

ShareBy Jo Schaper
Current River State Park has been in a contentious limbo since a 780-acre portion of the old Alton Club/Jerry J. Presley Center was transferred from the Missouri Department of Conservation to the Department of Natural Resources-Division of State Parks in March 2008.
At an open house/picnic on April [...]

ShareJEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Horseback riders now have a new Katy Trail State Park experience with the opening on March 31 of the Tebbetts-to-Portland section in Callaway County for equestrian use. A ceremony to commemorate the opening was held on Saturday, March 31 at the Mokane trailhead, which serves as the official horse trailer parking [...]

ShareA new water line construction project will provide better service this spring to guests and visitors at Roaring River State Park near Cassville. In April, Missouri State Parks will begin installing new water lines, spigots and valves at many locations throughout the park.
During [...]

ShareAccording to an article in the Quad City Times, Iowa DNR will be reopening the caves in Maquoketa Caves State Park effective April 15.
he caves, which will be accessible using a wristband system, will remain open until Oct 1. The caves have been closed for two years to prevent the spread of white nose [...]

Share(Asst. Ed. Note: This is a little far afield, but since Missouri’s wild public land caves are closed to visitation for the same reason, this story came to my attention. Details come from a KWQC News 6 report (serving Davenport/Moline/Bettendorf/Rock Island) and other sources.)
In 2009, after a report of the Geomyces destructans fungus being found [...]

ShareBy Tom Uhlenbrock
Missouri State Parks
PINEVILLE, Mo. – One of the first white men to explore the rugged Ozark hills of the far southwest corner of Missouri described it well.
“A tall, thick and rank growth of wild grass covers the whole country, in which the oaks are standing interspersed, like fruit trees in some well-cultivated orchard, [...]

ShareTraveler, and many of its readers, have a fondness for home-made Missouri music when it is good, (or at least the kind where playing for the love of it pays a large part in its making). Seeing as home-made music is an Ozark and rural Missouri tradition, it’s not unusual that news of jam sessions, [...]

Share The Civilian Conservation Corps dining lodge at the Camp Pin Oak Group Camp in Lake of the Ozarks State Park was completely destroyed by fire early Friday morning.
The fire was first spotted by residents across the lake and th Osage Beach Fire District was notified at 2:10 a.m. Park officials consider the dining [...]

ShareIt was the first time Virginia and I had been away from home by ourselves in four or five years. We ran my Traveler newsstand route July 1-2, which gave me a chance to introduce her to some of my favorite people and places in Traveler Country.
I usually make advertising calls along the route, but [...]