Deep in the woods of Lampe, Missouri, only four miles from the Arkansas border, you’ll find a large, 10,000-acre nature park named Dogwood Canyon, a playground for those with a love for all things outdoors.
It offers hiking, wildlife tours, horseback riding, biking, and trout fishing alongside views of beautiful waterfalls, creeks, forests, and hills. Aside from a few renovations and additions to make the park an easier terrain to navigate, the park has been left otherwise untouched. As you enjoy the scenery that European colonizers and Native Americans alike explored, you can stop by the mill restaurant and the conservation center, where you can enjoy delicious food while learning about the area’s wildlife and history.
In the early 19th century, the park was occupied by settlers, the likes of whom left cabins around the park that can still be visited today. With the turn of the next century, Hobbs Creek at Dogwood Canyon became a hot spot for lead and zinc mining, as World War I drove demand for these minerals skyward. In the 70s, parts of the park were used as an RV park for trout fishing, a recreational activity that Missouri is practically known for. However, once this park shut down, the property was left unattended for many years.
In 1990, Johnny Morris, the owner of Bass Pro Shop, bought 2,260 acres, which he made the core of the property. Deeper investigations led to the discovery of an ancient burial in a bluff near the park’s entrance, which, when carbon-dated, was found to be 960 A.D. Only three years later, archaeologists found three more human burials in the park caves, with one dating back to 6000 B.C. It is believed to be the oldest human skeleton dated in the entire state of Missouri.
In 2017, the park was forced to close after enormous floods hit that April with never-before-seen water levels. Reconstruction took five months and required the work of 130 laborers and hundreds of dump trucks of soil. Ten thousand pounds of trout were released in the water, leading to the insane population you’ll encounter there today.
Since this reconstruction, the park has only continued to grow. It now stretches across the Arkansas border, with a pasture of bison, elk, and long-horn you can visit if you take the Wildlife Tram Tour. You can also visit the Glory Hole, Johnny Morris’ personal fishing hole, where only he and his chosen guests are allowed to fish. Such chosen guests include Johnny Cash and George H.W. Bush. Though no one is allowed to remove any fish, you can feed them with the tour guide if you so choose.
Dogwood Canyon is, without a doubt, a natural Missouri wonder. No article or photo can perfectly capture the beauty of the waterfalls, cliffs, lush grass, and towering trees. It is something that can only be truly experienced in person, so I’d recommend getting a ticket or two while the summer season, and therefore the activities, are in full swing!
