Your Guide to the Ozarks
Mills that ground corn a century ago, Civil War ground, ghost towns the river moved away from, and courthouses that still run their towns. These places carry the region's story, told straight from official sources.
A National Register historic district of stone and timber buildings the Civilian Conservation Corps built at Big Spring in the 1920s and 1930s: a dining lodge, cabins, and a museum, closed for restoration but walkable today.
A half-mile Forest Service loop inside Watercress Recreation Area: past Watercress Spring, up a hillside to Civil War earthworks overlooking the Current River, and by a small cave in a rocky bank.
Missouri's only cobblestone-covered courthouse, built in 1871 and reclad by the WPA in 1936, stands vacant on its Main Street square in Van Buren, still the town's gathering ground for tree lightings and the Festival of Lights.