Watercress Recreation Area
The Forest Service's in-town Current River access: a double-lane concrete boat launch, five picnic sites, and concrete stair entries down to a river beach, a half mile from downtown Van Buren.
Chilton Creek Boat Ramp
The Park Service's trailered-boat ramp on the lower Current River, about twelve road miles north of Van Buren on Route M: motorized vessels only, no floater access, with overflow parking shared with the Pin Oak access.
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Above Van Buren on a summer weekend, the Current River belongs to the floaters, hundreds of canoes, kayaks, and tubes drifting down from the landings. Chilton Creek Boat Ramp is where the motorboats get their own door. The National Park Service keeps this ramp near the mouth of Chilton Creek, around River Mile 29, for trailered motorized boats, and its parking lot doubles as the overflow lot for the Pin Oak loading access next door.
The rules are the point here, and they are strict. The park's Superintendent's Compendium lists Chilton Creek among the launch sites dedicated to motorized vessels: trailered boats only, no floater access, and no swimming or wading within 50 feet of the ramp. If you are putting in a canoe or a tube, this is not your access; Waymeyer Landing, downstream, is the non-motorized put-in.
The Park Service reported the ramp unharmed by the record 2017 flood and available for motorized vessels, and it remains in the current Compendium's list of launch sites. As everywhere on this river, high water rewrites the plan, so check the posted river levels before trailering up Route M.
Good to know before you go
- Fees
- No fee is stated by the official source for this ramp (recorded as unknown).
- Hours and seasons
- No hours and no seasonal closure are stated by the official source. The ramp stands in the park's current Superintendent's Compendium list of launch sites for trailered motorized boats. River conditions and flood closures can change access; the Park Service posts Current River levels and closures.
- Parking
- Parking at the ramp off Route M, about 12 road miles north of Van Buren. The lot also serves as overflow parking for the Pin Oak access.
- Accessibility
- No accessibility statement is published for this ramp.
- Nearest town
- Van Buren, Missouri
- Coordinates
- 37.062828, -91.048461
- Access type
- Trailered boat ramp, motorboats only; no floater access
What you can do there
- Boat ramp for trailered motorized boats
- Overflow parking that also serves the Pin Oak access
Best for
Filed under
Nearby places
Songbird Trail
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.
Paint Rock River Access
A Park Service river access at River Mile 33 on the Lower Current, at the end of County Road 626 north of Van Buren, with MDC's Paint Rock Unit around it and Gravel Spring a half mile downriver.
Carter County Courthouse
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.