Sam A. Baker State Park is a public recreation area encompassing in the

Saint Francois Mountains The St. Francois Mountains in southeast Missouri are a mountain range of Precambrian igneous mountains rising over the Ozark Plateau. This range is one of the oldest exposures of igneous rock in North America. The name of the range is spelled out ...

region of the

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover ...

. The

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...

offers fishing, canoeing, swimming, camping, and trails for hiking and horseback riding. The visitor and nature center is housed in a historic building that was originally constructed as a stable in 1934. Twenty-five buildings and five structures comprise the Sam A. Baker State Park Historic District, a national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1985.

History

The

was acquired in 1926 and is named for Missouri

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Sam Aaron Baker who encouraged the development of the park in his home

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

. In the 1930s, the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

added many structures to the park including the park office and visitors center, which was originally used as a stable, the stone dining lodge, most of the park's cabins, and the backpacking shelters on the Mudlick Trail.

Activities and amenities

*The park offers access to the

St. Francis River The St. Francis River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, about long, in southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas in the United States. The river drains a mostly rural area and forms part of the Missouri-Arkansas state line along th ...

and Big Creek for fishing, canoeing, and swimming. *Camping: The park has 187 campsites, half of them electric and 18 rustic, plus air-conditioned cabins. A separate campground with 21 sites is available for use by equestrians. *Trails: The Mudlick Trail is available for hiking, backpacking, and horseback riding. The Mudlick has three stone shelters available for backpackers, and views of the Mudlick Mountain Wild Area and the Mudlick Natural Area. There is also the Shut-Ins Trail, the Hollow Pass Trail, and the nearby Wappapello Section of the Ozark Trail. The park also has a paved bicycle trail open to cyclists, hikers, skateboarders, and roller skaters.

Access

Missouri Route 143 passes through the park. From the west access is via Route 143 from DesArc in southern Iron County. Access from the east and US Route 67 is via Missouri Route 34 north of

Silva Silva, da Silva, and de Silva are surnames of Portuguese or Galician origin which are widespread in the Portuguese-speaking countries including Brazil. The name is derived from Latin ("forest" or "woodland"). It is the family name of the Hous ...

to the Route 143 junction east of Patterson.''Missouri Atlas & Gazetteer'', DeLorme, First edition, 1998, pp. 56-7

References

External links

Sam A. Baker State Park
Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Sam A. Baker State Park Map
Missouri Department of Natural Resources {{authority control State parks of Missouri State parks of the U.S. Interior Highlands Protected areas established in 1926 1926 establishments in Missouri Civilian Conservation Corps in Missouri Protected areas of Wayne County, Missouri Nature centers in Missouri Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri Buildings and structures in Wayne County, Missouri National Register of Historic Places in Wayne County, Missouri National Park Service rustic in Missouri