OZARK Ozark Rivers National Monument A Proposal

Those who know the beauty of the Current—Eleven Point Country of southeast Missouri and have seen its clear, spring-fed rivers winding among quiet hills have long cherished the hope that these streams would remain unchanged.

It was encouraging therefore when, in 1950, the State of Missouri took a position urging that certain rivers, including the Current and Eleven Point, be preserved as free flowing streams. The Arkansas-White-Red Basins Inter-Agency Committee supported this recommendation in its report of June 1955.

As follow up, the National Park Service under authority contained in the Park, Parkway and Recreational Survey Act of 1936, and with the cooperation of the interested State agencies, prepared a plan for the preservation and development of the recreation resources of the two rivers. This plan, published in 1956 by the Missouri Division of Resources and Development, recommended that a national recreation area be designated within the watersheds of the Current and Eleven Point Rivers. The Missouri State Legislature recently indicated its support of this general objective. In January 1959, it requested the Congress of the United States to enact legislation which would establish a national recreation area so that these great scenic and recreational values would be perpetually protected from destruction by man-made encroachments.

At a meeting in Washington, D. C. during February of 1959, between representatives of the State of Missouri and the National Park Service, it was decided that a further study of the Current—Eleven Point River Country was needed before definite action should be initiated on the proposal. Funds were subsequently appropriated to the National Park Service for the study, the results of which are presented in this report.

Waiting to push out into the full swift Current. Missouri Conservation Commission, Don Wooldridge