There is considerable to show in the "Show Me" state of Missouri: 10 National Wildlife Refuges, 10 units of the National Park System, and perhaps its crowning glory, the Mark Twain National Forest, the only national forest in the state.
Missouri also boasts eight wilderness areas. One, the Mingo Wilderness Area, is part of the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge. This mostly swampy area, best seen by canoe, was left when the Mississippi River shifted course.
Other Missouri wilderness areas are part of the 1.5 million-acre Mark Twain National Forest spread through the Ozark Mountains in the southern part of the state. Largest of these is the Irish Wilderness Area. Within its 16,277 acres lives a wide range of wildlife, including deer, fox, bobcat and coyote. It also supports turkeys and several species of raptor, along with a full complement of reptiles including all three pit vipers found in North America: copperhead, rattlesnake and eastern cottonmouth.
Others include the Paddy Creek Wilderness, 7,019 acres; Bell Mountain Wilderness, 8,977 acres; Rockpile Wilderness, 4,089 acres (smallest in the state); Devil’s Backbone Wilderness, 6,595 acres, the Piney Creek Wilderness, 8,112 acres, and the Hercules-Glade Wilderness, 12,314 acres.
The Hercules-Glade Wilderness Area includes some of the most scenic landscapes in the American Midwest. The high points of Coy Bald and Pilot Knob stand 600 feet above Long Creek and offer splendid views of the drainage.
The Mark Twain also includes a designated Wild and Scenic River (the Eleven Point), the largest spring anywhere on national forest land (Greer Spring) and over 500 native species of wildlife.
Missouri is a state of rivers, sharing reaches of the Missouri, Mississippi, White, the protected Eleven Point, the Current and the Meramec Rivers.
National Lands in Missouri
National Parks
National Wildlife Refuges
U.S. Forest Service
Fast Facts
- Total acres in state: 44,095,000
- Total Wilderness acres: 71,113
- Total number of areas: 8
- Largest Wilderness: Irish
- Smallest Wilderness: Rockpile Mountain
- Map of Wilderness Areas in Missouri
