![]() Francois Mountains about 1.4 billion years ago, bursting forth from the explosive action of three volcanos. “… the earth and its community of life are untrammeled (not confined or limited) by man where man himself is a visitor who does not remain …” -Wilderness Act of 1964 Bell Mountain Wildernessīell Mountain formed along with the rest of Iron County’s St. The shock of these cold springs brings respite to hikers and backpackers during the summer months. The smaller Bliss and Fiddlers Springs are a short quarter-mile distance off the main trail with signs indicating their presence. Gorgeous springs of all sizes punctuate the area and inundate the Eleven Point, where reintroduced otters frolic among water plants and overhanging roots. Hiking the trail affords an opportunity to see the Whites Creek Cave, which serves as a home for the endangered Indiana bat. The 19.6-mile loop of the Whites Creek Trail guides hikers along the Eleven Point River and through curiously named hollows such as Bliss, Orchard, and Barn Hollow. Grasslands and idyllic Ozark glades also typify the area. The current growth is a mixture of oak, hickory, and shortleaf pine. Those trees were harvested along with the rest in the Ozark logging boom of the early 20th century. When walking through the forest, imagine the stately virgin white oaks that once grew here, oaks famously so large their circumferences necessitated measurement in feet. Now a part of the Mark Twain National Forest, the Irish Wilderness landscape differs from what those early wanderers encountered. Even today, this 150-year-old mystery covers the area like a shroud. It is assumed they died at the hands of marauders and deserters who used the area as a safe haven. Contact with the settlement was lost at the onset of the Civil War and by war’s end, no one was living there. Louis was an unfriendly place for Irish Catholics, so a priest led roughly 40 Irish families away from the city and into the Oregon County wilderness to establish an idyllic community far from intolerance. The area takes its name from a long-gone settlement of the 19th century. The Irish WildernessĪt 16,277 acres, this is Missouri’s largest wilderness area. So pack your lunch and step off your porch-we’re going into the wild. The federal Wilderness Act of 1964 describes wilderness as a place “… where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled (not confined or limited) by man where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” To visit a wilderness is to experience the land the way the settlers did, exploring a heritage preserved in these natural time capsules. All the same, a map and compass make wise additions to your hiking gear.Ĭongress designated these large tracts of southern Missouri lands as wilderness areas last century. Spanning more than 71,000 acres, these primitive areas have minimal signage and sometimes unclear paths, but that’s part of the fun. ![]() Nature lovers who frequent the many state parks here inevitably find their way to one of Missouri’s eight national wilderness areas. As inviting as the whip-poor-will’s call in the dark, Missouri’s wilderness beckons exploration. It’s a wild world from sweeping vistas atop Bell Mountain to waters of the Eleven Point River flowing into the early morning mist. Parks and trails lace Missouri like cracks in cobblestone, places where you can escape from urban life and commune with nature among windswept glades and shady forests.
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