Miller Community Lake
A small, quiet conservation lake east of Van Buren with a concrete ramp for electric-motor boats, a mile-long trail around the water, picnic areas at two parking lots, and bass, bluegill, catfish, and redear sunfish.
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Miller Community Lake is a small Missouri Department of Conservation lake in the woods east of Van Buren, open to public fishing since 1959. Sources disagree on its exact size, putting the water at 20 to 27 acres inside a total area of about 61 acres, and the honest way to say it is that this is a small, quiet lake you can walk all the way around on a trail of about a mile.
The fishing is the point. The Department lists largemouth bass, bluegill, channel catfish, and redear sunfish, and the area carries its own bass rule: fish longer than 12 inches but shorter than 15 must be returned to the water unharmed. A concrete ramp at the southern parking lot takes boats with electric motors only, and the Department stocks the lake and manages it as one of its community fishing waters close to town.
Two parking areas, one on each side of the lake, hold the picnic spots, and a privy stands at the southern lot by the ramp. Know the limits before you go: there is no camping and no swimming at Miller Community Lake, both are prohibited by the area rules, and the lake is closed to all hunting. What it offers instead is an easy, close-in hour or two: a ramp, a trail, a picnic table, and a quiet piece of water seven miles from downtown Van Buren.
Good to know before you go
- Fees
- No fee is stated by the official source for this area (recorded as unknown). A Missouri fishing permit is required to fish under statewide rules.
- Hours and seasons
- Missouri conservation areas are closed from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. except for authorized fishing, hunting, and camping (MDC area brochure); camping and hunting are both prohibited at this lake, so the fishing exception is the one that applies. No seasonal closure is stated.
- Parking
- Two parking areas, one on each side of the lake; the southern lot holds the concrete boat ramp and privy (MDC area brochure). The lake sits just off Highway 60 east of Van Buren, reached via Highway 21 north of Highway 60 per the brochure.
- Accessibility
- ADA parking is listed for this area in a Missouri Department of Conservation newsroom release on Ozarks community lakes; the area's 2015 brochure predates that claim and planned accessibility upgrades as future work, so confirm on site.
- Nearest town
- Van Buren, Missouri
- Region
- Southeast Missouri
- Coordinates
- 37.04811, -90.90485
What you can do there
- Concrete boat ramp at the southern parking lot (electric motors only)
- Two parking areas, one on each side of the lake
- Privy at the southern parking lot
- Picnic areas at both lots, with fire rings at multiple spots
- Roughly one-mile trail looping around the lake
- Bank fishing access along the dam and shoreline trails