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Iron County, Missouri
The motto of Iron
County, Missouri -- “Where every drive is scenic, and every
stop historic” – is a fitting acknowledgment of this east-central
Missouri county’s distinctive mix of natural wonder and American
history. The majority of the county’s 11,000 citizens reside in the six
biggest towns -- Annapolis, Arcadia, Des Arc, Ironton (the county seat),
Pilot Knob and Viburnum.
Area attractions include a bounty of state parks. Taum
Sauk Mountain, at 1,772 feet, is the highest point in Missouri.
From its peak flows Mina Sauk Falls, the tallest wet-weather waterfall in
the state. The three-mile Mina Sauk Falls Trail takes hikers through a
portion of the famed Ozark Trail, on down to Devil’s Tollgate, an
eight-foot-wide passage through volcanic ryhyolite standing 30 feet high.
Further down the trail is
Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park. Here’s how the park got its
unusual name: Over a billion years ago, hot volcanic ash and gases spewed
into the air, then cooled forming igneous rock. Shallow seas pooled in the
craters, and the waters of the Black River became confined, or “shut
in” to a narrow channel.
Other area attractions are the gigantic granite boulders at Elephant
Rocks State Park, also formed by the cooled magma of volcanic
eruptions from centuries past.
A great deal of Iron County – and 28 other Missouri counties –
consists of the Mark
Twain National Forest, established by Presidential Proclamation
on September 11, 1939. The forest’s 1.5 million acres spans the southern
half of Missouri, and represents 11 percent of all forested land in
Missouri. The forest includes seven federally designated wildernesses and
numerous historical and archaeological sites.
Other state parks and historical sites within a 10-mile radius of Arcadia
Valley, the center of Iron County: Fort
Davidson State Historical Site, Millstream
Gardens Conservation Area, (home of the yearly Missouri
Whitewater Championships), Marble
Creek
Recreational Area and the Silvermines
Recreational Area.<< Back
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