Places to Go: Rudolf Bennitt CA

Rudolf Bennitt Conservation Area

A highly educated place to horse around

There are few ways better to learn about nature than to be out in the middle of it, but one could spend a lifetime in central Missouri’s Rudolf Bennitt Conservation Area (CA) and never know more about nature than the area’s namesake.

The area, which consists of 3,575 mostly forested acres in Boone, Howard, and Randolph counties, was named for Rudolf Bennitt, a Harvard-educated professor of zoology at the University of Missouri and an early influence in the formation of the Missouri Conservation Commission and Missouri Department of Conservation.

“He was kind of a big player in the conservation movement,” said MDC District Supervisor Chris Newbold. “Certainly, here in Missouri, but really even throughout the country.”

With the 48-acre lake and more than 17 miles of stream frontage, there’s plenty of opportunities for fishing, but even with these resources available, fishing takes a back seat — or, more appropriately, a back saddle — to the area’s most common summertime usage, horseback riding.

The area’s Moniteau Trail, a 12.5-mile multiuse trail, regularly attracts horseback riders, many of whom also take advantage of the area’s six camping areas, Newbold said.

“Camping and horseback riding are probably the two biggest uses we get in the summertime.”