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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