Big Spring Historic District
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.
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When Missouri ran Big Spring as one of its first state parks, it built in stone and timber. The historic district entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 holds 26 contributing buildings and two more contributing features on the west bank of the Current River: a dining lodge, a row of rental cabins, a museum, ranger and entrance stations, a pump house, a footbridge, and two picnic shelters. State park crews began the building in 1925, and Civilian Conservation Corps crews carried it through the 1930s; the National Register nomination calls them the best features of Civilian Conservation Corps park construction in Missouri.
None of the buildings is open. The lodge and cabins closed in the fall of 2014 ahead of a rehabilitation that has now run a decade; the Park Service reports the main renovation complete as of September 2025, with minor touch-ups still under way, and the reopening waits on a concession contract that has not yet been awarded. No reopening date has been announced. What a visitor gets today is the walk: lodge and cabin exteriors along restored paths, and two trails that start here, the Spring Branch Trail down to the spring and the 3.8-mile Chubb Hollow Trail out to the CCC shelter house at Chubb Hollow.
Treat the district as a companion stop to Big Spring, a third of a mile east, rather than a trip on its own. See the spring first, then walk over and read a century of Missouri park history in the buildings: a state park that became a national one, built by hand, waiting out its renovation.
Good to know before you go
- Fees
- No entrance pass is required anywhere in Ozark National Scenic Riverways, and the Park Service states no fee for walking the district grounds. The lodge and cabins are closed and cannot be booked, and no rates are published.
- Hours and seasons
- The Park Service states no hours for the district. The lodge, cabins, and museum have been closed since the fall of 2014. The main renovation was completed in September 2025, minor construction touch-ups are still in progress, and no reopening date has been announced; the buildings will eventually reopen under a concession contract. The grounds, building exteriors, and trails remain in use.
- Parking
- Use the Big Spring parking area at the end of Missouri Highway 103, four miles south of Van Buren. The lodge and cabins stand about a third of a mile west of the spring and are reached on foot.
- Accessibility
- The lodge walkways and cabin path system were restored in 2024. The Park Service publishes no accessibility rating for the district itself, and its trails are not described as wheelchair accessible.
- Nearest town
- Van Buren, Missouri
- Coordinates
- 36.948067, -90.991089
What you can do there
- Dining lodge and rental cabins from the CCC era (exteriors; buildings closed)
- Museum building (closed)
- Spring Branch Trail down to Big Spring
- Chubb Hollow Trail, a 3.8-mile loop that begins at the lodge
- Chubb Hollow Open Shelter House, a CCC picnic shelter from 1935
- Restored lodge walkways and cabin paths
- Footbridge, pump house, and entrance station
- National Register of Historic Places district, listed in 1981