Places to Go: Lamine River Conservation Area

Lamine River Conservation Area

Just as it straddles the line between Cooper and Morgan counties, Lamine River Conservation Area (CA) also straddles the divide between Missouri’s Ozarks and prairie lands.

Located on just over 6,000 acres, the Lamine River, from which the area gets its name, exhibits elements of both Ozark and prairie waterways, said MDC Wildlife Biologist Travis Henry.

“Flat Creek and Richland Creek come together to make the Lamine,” Henry said. “Richland Creek is an Ozark stream, and Flat Creek is a prairie type stream, so the Lamine becomes kind of a gravelly bottom river, but then it has these big wide muddy holes, too.”

The river provides fishing opportunities for anglers, but it’s not the only place on the area to wet a line.

“We have five ponds on the area that are open to fishing,” he said. “They are stocked regularly with catfish.”

Usage in February is light, but anyone wishing to spend a quiet day hiking the nearly 20 miles of mowed access trails is likely to be rewarded with a bald eagle sighting, Henry said.

“I think we’ve got a nesting pair that have built nests on the area over the last couple of years,” he said.