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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.
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