Recreation
Mark Twain National Forest has a wide range of popular recreation opportunities. With seven Wilderness Areas, the Ozark Trail, the Eleven Point Wild and Scenic River, many campgrounds and day use areas, springs, and areas such as Fuchs House at Markham Springs you are sure to discover your place to unplug and make the Mark Twain part of your story.
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Current Recreation Conditions
Area Name | Status | Area Conditions |
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Bar-K Wrangler Camp | Open | |
Bay Nothing Gravel Boat Launch | Open | |
Berryman Campground | Open | |
Big Bay Recreation Area | Open | Day Use Area and toilet – Open Boat Launch - Closed for Safety issues
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Big Piney River | Open | For Stream Flow and Flooding forecast visit the USGS website |
Big Piney equestrian camp | Open | |
Boze Mill Float Camp | Open | |
Brazil Creek Trailhead | Open | |
Cane Bluff River Access | Open | The boat ramp at the access is currently unusable as a result of a flooding event in 2017. |
Chadwick Motorized Trails System | Open | |
Cobb Ridge Recreation Area | Open | |
Council Bluff Recreation Area | Closed | Reservation Window: 5/18-10/30 Wild Boar Ridge Campground. Public drinking water is unavailable until further notice. Council Bluff Beach area closed for the winter. |
Crossroads Access | Open | For Stream Flow and Flooding forecast visit the USGS website |
Current River | Open | For Stream Flow and Flooding forecast visit the USGS website. |
Deer Leap Recreation Area | Open | |
Dry Fork Recreation Area | Open | Will have its gates closed for the season on December 1st and services stopped for the winter. The gates and services will start back up next spring on April 15th. If a date falls on a weekend, then the gate will be open the following Monday. |
East Gate | Open | For Stream Flow and Flooding forecast visit the USGS website |
Falling Springs Picnic Ground | Open | The road to this site is steep and bumby |
Float Camp Recreation Area | Closed | |
Fourche Lake Recreation Area | Open | |
Greer Crossing Recreation Area | Open | |
Greer Spring | Open | |
Hendrickson Boat Launch | Open | |
Hercules Glades Wilderness | Open | |
Highway 142 River Access | Open | |
Lane Spring Recreation Area | Open | Day Use opened for season on March 1 and campground opens for season April 15. Water will not be available until May 1. |
Loggers Lake Recreation Area | Closed | Reservation Window: 5/18-10/30 |
Marble Creek Recreation Area | Closed | Scheduled to open April 4, 2024 |
Markham Springs Recreation Area | None | Day-use activities open year round, campground closes seaonally. Pavilion - Temporarily Closed until Further Notice |
Noblett Lake Recreation Area | Open | The Noblett Recreation Area (Day Use Area and Dam Area) is open including the bathrooms. The area below the dam is open for dispersed camping. The pavilion is available by 1st come/1st serve. |
North Fork Recreation Area | Open | North Fork Recreation Area - Day Use Area
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OT - Between the Rivers Section | Open | Trail has considerable damage and blow down. |
Paddy Creek Recreation Area | Open | The campground closes for the season Dec. 1 and reopens on April 1 |
Pine Ridge Recreation Area | Open | Day use is open year round; campground closes for season on Dec. 1 and reopens in mid-April (15th). |
Pinewoods Lake Recreation Area | Open | Pinewoods Lake Recreation Area is open year-round for Day Use Activities only, with a managed season of May 1 through October 1. |
Piney Creek Wilderness | Open | |
Red Bluff Recreation Area | Closed | Will close for season Oct. 31, 2023. |
Ripley Lake | Open | Trail has considerable damage and blow down. |
Shell Knob | Open | Campground closed for season, day use remains open. |
Silver Mines Recreation Area | Closed | Reservation Window: 3/9-10/30 |
Slabtown Recreation Area | Open | For Stream Flow and Flooding forecast visit the USGS website |
Stop 5: Caney Day Use Area | Open | |
Sutton Bluff ATV, UTV, and Motorcycle Area | Open | Notice: Trails 4 and 5 are closed form previous flood damage, and trail 12 is closed for compromised structural integrity of the bridge. |
Sutton Bluff Recreation Area | Closed | Reservation Window: 3/31-10/30 |
Thomasville River Access | Open | |
Turner Mill North River Access | Open | |
Turner Mill South River Access | Open | |
Watercress Recreation Area | Open | |
Whitten River Access | Open | |
Wolf Creek | Open |
Spotlights
Falling Springs Picnic Ground
Once you step out of your car this site will transport you back in time.
This is a rustic picnic area with abundant history, and minimal conveniences. The day use facility is situated on the edge of a pond formed by a spring. The around the pond is open and grassy. Oak and pine forest surround the site.
The spring, one of our most photographed areas on the Forest, is known as Falling Spring because water pours out of the rock above the pond as a small waterfall. In the early 1900’s the spring provided power for two mills. To get to the mill there is a wooden treadway.
Also located on the site is a log cabin that is over 100 years old.
Falling Spring Mill
Built between 1927 and 1929, Falling Spring Mill was used to grind corn for feed, saw out shingles, saw firewood, and generate electricity on the site. The second of two mills, it differed from the original structure in that the first had a wooden wheel.
The mill was first constructed of timber, then later enclosed with saw board siding. The mill’s present overshot wheel came from Johnson Spring, located approximately three miles down Hurricane Creek from Falling Spring.
The former mill sits under a bluff where water comes out of a cave opening to form a spring, about 15 feet above the ground. When the mill was in use, a wooden flume went from the spring to the small mill.
The mill is unique for the time period it was built in, the size is small compared to most of the mills in the area at the time, which were much larger.
Thomas Brown Cabin
Thomas and Jane Brown homesteaded the Falling Spring area in 1851. They settled in a land which looked very similar to their homeland, Tennessee.
The area around Falling Spring provided for their basic needs – water for livestock and personal use, and trees from which to build a cabin. Known today as the Tomas Brown Cabin, it was the first of four houses built near the site.
One of the reasons the cabin remains today because of the use of half-dovetail notching used on the corners. The notching helped shed water off the logs.
“We crossed the Mississippi River at what was called Green’s Old Ferry and we crossed the Ohio River at what was called Golconda in an old horse boat. In that company were 17 persons. They were the Brown Family and my mother’s two sisters (named Fowler) and the Reaser family”
“On reaching Missouri, the eldest brother, James M., shook hands with each of his brothers and sisters, bade them farewell, and departed northward, settling in the St. Joseph area. The rest of the company continued to Oregon County.” - Written April, 1929, by James Brown in his granddaughter, Dorothy Thompson’s, graduation memory book.