Discover Iron County: trails, landscape and history

Discover Iron County through its distinctive landscapes, routes and specific historic sites. Taum Sauk Mountain State Park showcases the natural side of the county, while buildings in Ironton, Arcadia and Pilot Knob tell their own chapters of regional history. This offers different trip-planning options, with a focus on nature, trails or history.

Mountains, water and trails

Taum Sauk Mountain State Park encompasses the highest point in the state of Missouri. Taum Sauk Creek flows through the entire park and is recognized as a State Outstanding Resource Water for its aesthetic and scientific value. Elevation and water shape the landscape in different ways: the highest point is part of the park, while the recognition applies to the creek.

The 33-mile Taum Sauk section is part of the Ozark Trail. The Trace Creek section of the Ozark Trail lies in Washington and Iron counties and is open to hikers, cyclists and horseback riders. For planning your trip, two distinct details are relevant: the specific length of the Taum Sauk section and the expressly permitted uses of the Trace Creek section.

Rocks and traces of the region

The Elephant Rocks Natural Area is recognized for its outstanding geological value. At Elephant Rocks State Park, the Braille Trail was created for people with visual and physical disabilities. A spur of the trail leads to the ruins of an old locomotive roundhouse, connected with the history of quarrying and railroads in the region. Here, accessibility intersects with a specific chapter of regional industrial history, without reducing the trail to a single purpose.

Pilot Knob National Wildlife Refuge is a 90-acre protected area on Pilot Knob Mountain in Iron County. It includes abandoned iron ore mine shafts dating from the mid-19th century, which have become an important habitat for the federally endangered Indiana bat. The shafts thus represent both the region’s former iron ore mining and their later importance as a habitat.

Buildings and historical timelines

The Iron County Courthouse was built in 1860. Arcadia Academy was originally established in 1846 as a Methodist high school. Immanuel Lutheran Church in Pilot Knob was built in 1861 and used by the Union Army as a headquarters and hospital during the Battle of Pilot Knob. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Fort Davidson was also added to the National Register of Historic Places, in 1970. The Iron County Courthouse Buildings in Ironton followed in 1979; 1998 is listed as the year the Ursuline Academy–Arcadia College Historic District in Arcadia was added. The dates therefore span 1970 to 1998 and refer to different historic sites and districts.

Visitor information in Arcadia

The Iron County Historical Society Museum is located in the Arcadia Valley Visitors Center and Amtrak station in Arcadia. It is open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.; check the opening hours before your visit. Arcadia Valley Station is an Amtrak stop. Check train service before you travel.

Thee Abbey Kitchen serves freshly baked goods and frozen desserts such as frozen custard to guests and visitors every day.

Discover more destinations: Pilot Knob, Moniteau County, Johnson County, Benton County, Bates County, Andrew County, Randolph, Jasper

For the broader travel overview: Missouri.