Missouri State Parks – Share the Outdoors

America’s Great Outdoors

Posted on July 10, 2024July 10, 2024 by Larry Whiteley

America the Beautiful

By Larry Whiteley

The opening line of one of my favorite songs says, “God bless America, land that I love.” Another line is, “From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam, God bless America, my home sweet home.”

I love America’s great outdoors. I grew up in Missouri and still call it my home sweet home. It is a state blessed with natural beauty and abundant places to enjoy outdoor activities. I have also experienced the mountains, prairies, and oceans in many other places in America.

Make a fishing memory. *Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation*

I have hiked and fished the mountain lakes and streams of Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Hawaii. I have also walked and fished the beaches of Hawaii, Florida, California, Texas, Maine, and Alabama.

I have enjoyed freshwater lakes, rivers, and streams while fishing in my home state of Missouri. Also, Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Illinois, North and South Dakota, New York, and Minnesota. I have made a lot of fishing trips to Wisconsin lakes to fish with our son and his family. I hope there will be more fishing trips there.

My wife and I have been to ten of America’s National Parks. Yellowstone, Glacier, Hawaii Volcanoes, Great Smoky Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns, Mammoth Cave, Rocky Mountain, Acadia, Grand Teton, and Everglades. They were all wonderful places to visit.

The history and majestic beauty of these places will always be in our storehouse of memories. We would love to see all the National Parks before the good Lord calls us home. We better get busy, though. There are 53 more for us to visit, and they cover 85 million acres.

Still on my bucket list is a trip to Alaska to fish, see Mt. McKinley, and enjoy the culture of that area. We might go to a few more fishing or hiking places, but Missouri is home and like Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.”

Family camping is fun. *Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation*

Wherever you live, I hope some of your most pleasant memories come from the great outdoors. If you can, I urge you to fish, hunt, camp, hike, and explore America with your family. Create memories that will last a lifetime.

May a memorable hiking trip always linger in your mind. May you go on a fishing or hunting trip you will never forget. May you forever remember a once-in-a-lifetime camping adventure.

When people from other countries come to America, they marvel at the abundance of our fish and wildlife, our National Parks, and all the places we can go to enjoy the great outdoors. Most surprising to them is the availability of these resources to ordinary people. In other parts of the world, only the privileged can walk to a stream and catch a trout, hunt deer, or pitch a tent in front of a magnificent view.

Grand Teton National Park. *Photo courtesy NPS/David Restivo*

We sometimes take our beautiful lakes, streams, oceans, mountains, prairies, and forests for granted. Thankfully, our forefathers knew the value of the Purple Mountains Majesty and the fruited plains and made natural resources the focus of their songs and lives.

Here in Missouri, we sometimes need to remember that we would only have the outdoor opportunities we do have with the continued efforts of the Conservation Federation of Missouri, Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri State Parks, Army Corps of Engineers, and others. We need to thank them and support them in any way we can.

Whatever state you live in, you need to do the same for your state’s conservation organizations: the US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service. These organizations use your donations and tax dollars to benefit your outdoor experiences.

Enjoy a sunset on a lake. *Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation*

In America, we have our choice of lakes, rivers, and streams to catch fish, paddle or boat around, play in their water, or relax on their banks and listen to the sounds of nature. We have many forests and prairies to make hunting memories. Campgrounds are waiting for you to come to enjoy sitting around a campfire and listening to a crackling fire and night sounds. Lots of hiking places with magnificent scenic views await your footprints.

They are all places you can go for at least a few days and relax from a hectic work week, either alone or with others. They are places to think and pray. Places to get away from traffic and all the screens you look at all the time. They are places to renew your mind or recharge your body.

The cost is either free or minimal. The physical and mental benefits are many.

It is better than a $100-per-hour psychoanalysis for putting our lives into perspective. I encourage you to get outside and enjoy America’s Outdoors every season of the year.

**Take a hike.** **Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation**

One of my favorite outdoor quotes, among many, is one by Anne Frank: “The best remedy for those afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy amidst the simple beauty of nature.”

As bad as it may seem (at times), we must thank God we live in America. In America, among other freedoms, we have the freedom to become what we want to be, believe what we want, and worship as we please. I cannot imagine some cosmic explosion or evolution created America’s great outdoors. I believe God created America’s great outdoors for us all to enjoy and care for. I have the right in America to be bold in telling others what I believe. You have the right to do the same. It is up to each of us to accept or reject.

I love America’s outdoors, and I believe God inspired me to write this poem.

GOD’S MIGHTY HAND

I have had people ask me just how I could believe in a God I do not see,

or his spoken words receive.

I smile and explain why I have no doubt.

It was God and his great power that brought the great outdoors about.

All I have to do is look around the times when I am there.

I see Him in the sunrise. That’s why I am so aware.

I see Him in summer rains that nourish the trees and wildflowers.

I see Him in a summer star-lit night. What a witness to his power.

I see Him in a campfire as the flames spark and dance.

I see Him as a deer sneaking through the woods and get a fleeting glance.

I see his beauty in the butterfly’s wings, the bronzed feathers of a turkey,

and the colors of the spring.

I see Him in the sparkling water as I make another cast.

I think of all He has done for me so many times.

I hear Him in the early light when the birds begin their songs.

I listen to Him when the thunder rolls and is so loud and strong.

I hear Him when the geese fly high in the sky.

I hear Him when an eagle cries. It is something you cannot buy.

I feel Him in a gentle breeze, and I say a prayer.

I know He is there when the sun shines warmly on my face.

His strength shows in the mountains and the ever-pounding seas.

The lightning bugs’ twinkling lights show his love for me.

If you will only stop, look, and listen when outdoors on the land.

You will see, hear, and feel that it was all created by God’s mighty hand.

Whether you are a believer or not, there is one more line from God Bless America that I want you to think about. “Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.” We all need God’s light from above in our broken and divided America.

Missouri State Parks – Show Me a Sign!

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Jim Low

Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park is a prime example of the high-quality outdoor experiences available free to all Missourians at state parks.

If you have visited one of Missouri’s 88 state parks and historic sites recently, you probably know that our park system – just like the national parks system – is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year. That’s good timing, because in a little more than a month Missourians will vote on whether to maintain their parks or allow them to wither away in order to save $6 a year in taxes. If that sounds like a stark choice, it is.

In the past 40 years, “tax” has become something of a four-letter word in many states. Up to now, Missouri has been an exception to this trend. In 1976, Show-Me State voters approved a sales tax of one-eighth of 1 percent to support conservation. In 1984 – well into the taxes-are-evil era, Missouri voters approved a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax for state parks and soil and water conservation. There’s an important difference between these two taxes. The conservation sales tax is written permanently into the state’s constitution. The parks, soil and water conservation tax must be re-approved by voters every 10 years. Otherwise, it lapses.

So far, voters have twice renewed the tax that keeps our parks open, prevents millions of tons of our topsoil from washing down to the Gulf of Mexico and keeps our lakes, streams, springs and wells flowing clean. But as the old saying goes – ironically in this case – the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes. The continuation of the parks, soil and water tax is anything but certain. Free access to the outdoors is anything but certain. If too few people understand what is at stake when they go to the polls on Nov. 8, it could sound the death knell for parks like Bennett Spring, Johnson Shut-Ins, Taum Sauk Mountain, Current River, Elephant Rocks, Ha-Ha Tonka, Onondaga, Elephant Rocks, Lake of the Ozarks and Table Rock. These and other parks would have to reduce hours and services. Eventually some would be shuttered or sold off to private interests.

The same would be true of Arrow Rock, Mastodon, Nathaniel Boone Homestead, Mark Twain Birthplace and other state historic sites. In all, 88 places where Missourians go to remember their natural and cultural heritages are in peril if too many voters cast knee-jerk votes against a tax whose benefits are unknown to them. They need to know why they should want to continue paying for parks when they could reduce their tax burden by voting against it.

There are plenty of compelling economic reasons, such as the fact that a family of four pays just $24 a year for the privilege of visiting – with no entry fee – 53 state parks that preserve some of the best examples of the Show-Me State’s various types of forests, prairies, streams and lakes. Most Missourians don’t know that their parks generate more than $1 billion in tourism-related sales, much of it from out of state. They don’t know that parks support more than 14,000 jobs. That is a bargain by any measure.

Children young and old love scrambling around on rocks at Elephant Rocks State Park.

You can help ensure that the parks, soils and water tax is renewed. All you have to do is get a sign and place it in front of your house or business. The Conservation Federation of Missouri has signs at its office just west of the State Capitol Building at 728 W. Main Street in Jefferson City. They are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. You might find it more convenient to pick up a sign at one of the Missouri Farm Bureau’s county offices. Or you can 573-634-2322 and make arrangements to receive signs. While you are at it, get several extras and ask friends who value Missouri state parks to put them in front of their homes. Talk to co-workers about the tax vote and explain to them why they should want to vote “Yes” to renew the tax. Another way to help is by liking the Citizens Committee Twitter account and Facebook page and sharing their posts and tweets. Every little bit helps.

Readers of a certain age will remember the refrain from the Joni Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi: “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” Don’t wait until your parks are gone. You can ensure that we continue to have places for families to camp, fish, hike and rediscover why Henry David Thoreau said, “In wildness is the preservation of the world.”

Treasure in Peril

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Jim Low

Missouri State Parks REALLY NEED That 0.01% Tax

David Gray’s granddaughter Emory Gray and mom Melissa Gray enjoy Roaring River State Park’s crystalline water.

You might be aware that Missouri’s one-tenth of 1-percent sales tax for parks, soils and water is up for a vote again this year. In an era when “tax” is a four-letter word, this particular tax is an exception. It is exceptional because, for starters, Missourians voted to establish it in 1984. You don’t see that every day.

Many of the lodges and other structures at Missouri State Parks were built by workers with the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, providing tangible links to American history.

Even though state parks receive only half of proceeds from the tax, it constitutes more than 75 percent of the operating budget for Missouri’s 53 state parks and 35 historic sites. Thanks to this stable funding, the Show-Me State has what is generally recognized as one of the best state park systems in the nation. While it is stable as long as it remains in effect, it requires re-approval by voters every 10 years. Voters may legitimately ask why they should continue paying for parks when they could reduce their tax burden by voting against it. There are plenty of convincing economic reasons, such as the fact that for a cost of $6 per person per year the tax generates more than $1 billion in tourism-related sales and directly or indirectly supports more than 14,000 jobs.

But that’s just money and I personally think it’s the least compelling argument for providing funding for our parks. To illustrate what I think is the most important reason for renewing the parks tax, I can’t think of a better example than that of David Gray’s extended family. David is a friend of mine. He is the founder of Ardent Reels, which manufactures high-quality spinning and casting reels in Macon, Missouri. He recently told me with pride and more than a little fondness about one of his family’s traditions.

Two-year old Emory Gray admires cousin Alex Como’s catch.

Each spring, members of the Gray family come from scattered locations around the nation and converge on Roaring River State Park in Barry County. Roaring River has been part of Missouri’s park system since 1928 and the focus of the Gray family reunion for 40 years. The most recent Gray family gathering had attendees spanning four generations and ranging in age from 2 to 95.

That’s a wide age span to please, but Roaring River and Missouri’s other state parks do it with ease. The park has hiking and handicap-accessible trails, buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, picnic grounds, a swimming pool, nature programs, sites for primitive camping or deluxe motor homes and – of course – world-class trout fishing.

While at Roaring River, Gray regularly runs into out-of-state visitors who express amazement at not having been asked to pay to get in.

“Not having to stop at a gate and pay a per-person or per-vehicle fee seems impossible to them,” he says. “You pay a nominal fee if you want to camp camping, but in Missouri, you don’t need money to enjoy nature. I think that’s how it should be.”

“Roaring River is close to my family’s heart,” says Gray. “We go there to renew our family ties and our spirits. Honestly, it would break our hearts if we lost the place where we have gathered as a family all these years. It’s a treasure beyond price.”

Michael Como and his daughter Alex are happy with their nice catch with this Roaring River rainbow trout.

But, it’s a treasure that might very well be lost this year. If those who value Missouri State Parks don’t go to the polls and show their support, most of the parks – which are owned and operated by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources – would have to be shuttered. With no money to run them, the DNR likely would be forced to sell most of these treasured places. Johnson Shut-Ins, Elephant Rocks, Bennett Spring, Meramec, Montauk, Lake of the Ozarks, Ha Ha Tonka, Pomme de Terre, Truman Lake, Mark Twain Stockton, Katy Trail state parks and dozens of others that draw a total of 18 million visitors per year would suddenly be off-limits to Missourians who have built family traditions similar to the Gray family’s.

This is no exaggeration.

The Missouri legislature already has slashed parks funding to the bone. State parks receive no money from the General Revenue Fund. Without the sales tax, Missouri’s state parks will virtually disappear. And don’t confuse this sales tax with the one-eighth of 1-percent sales tax for the Missouri Department of Conservation. That’s separate fund that is constitutionally separate from other state money. There’s no way to rob the conservation fund to pay for parks.

If you use any of Missouri’s fabulous parks, or if you see value in having a park system that makes our state a better, more prosperous place to live, vote to renew this tax. But that’s not enough. Tell your friends and family that the parks tax is up for renewal and beg them to join you at the polls. As of this writing, it has not been determined whether the vote will take place in August or November. Watch this page for more information.