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Alley Spring’s red mill, the deepest spring in Missouri, two spring-fed rivers, Echo Bluff, and herds of wild horses — all within the county, plus outfitters, places to stay, and places to eat.
Ozark National Scenic Riverways
The Jacks Fork and Current rivers, their springs, and their mills.
Alley Spring and Mill
A bright red roller mill, built in 1894, beside one of the largest springs in Missouri, whose deep blue water once turned its turbine. The spring stays 57 degrees year-round, and the mill is said to be one of the most photographed in the country. Today it’s part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, with a trail around the spring branch, picnic areas, a campground, and the old Alley general store as a visitor center. The Alley Spring Roller Mill has been on the National Register since 1981.
Jacks Fork and Current Rivers
Two spring-fed rivers run through Shannon County inside the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the first national park area in the country created to protect a river system, authorized by Congress in 1964. The Jacks Fork passes right through Eminence and joins the Current at Two Rivers. Outfitters in and around Eminence rent canoes, kayaks, rafts, and tubes and run shuttles, and accesses along both rivers make a day float easy to plan. Check river levels before you go; both rivers rise fast after heavy rain.
Round Spring
A nearly circular spring pool about 55 feet deep that pours out about 26 million gallons a day, flowing under a natural rock bridge to the Current River. Otters, wood ducks, and great blue herons turn up when it’s quiet; swimming and wading aren’t allowed. Next door, the Riverways’ Round Spring campground has evening ranger programs in summer, and rangers lead lantern tours of Round Spring Cave, though the cave is closed for the 2026 season while its access bridge is repaired after the November 2024 flood.
Blue Spring
The deepest spring in Missouri, 310 feet down, and the sixth-largest, with about 90 million gallons a day flowing into the Current River. Once called the “Spring of the Summer Sky,” it’s a startling deep blue that shifts with the light and with runoff after storms. A short walk from the parking area leads to the pool.
Rocky Falls
Rocky Creek tumbles over reddish-brown rhyolite, volcanic rock about 1.5 billion years old, into a wide pool that’s a favorite swimming hole in spring and summer. It’s a shut-in, where the hard rock squeezes the stream. There are picnic tables, a grill, and a trailhead; the Ozark Trail connects it with Klepzig Mill.
Klepzig Mill
A small turbine mill Walter Klepzig built in 1928 in the rhyolite shut-ins of Rocky Creek, with plank walls on stone piers and a corrugated iron roof, still standing above the creek. From Route NN, turn onto County Road 522 past the Rocky Falls sign; the mill is less than a mile on the right, with no sign or parking area, so it’s easy to miss. The road is narrow and can be muddy, and isn’t suited to motorhomes or trailers. The mill and farm are on the National Register.
Two Rivers
Where the Jacks Fork flows into the Current. After rain in one basin and not the other, you can see a line where a clear river meets a muddy one. A viewing deck looks over the junction, especially nice at sunset, and there’s a campground with restrooms and a small seasonal store that rents canoes, kayaks, tubes, and rafts.
Devils Well and Cave Spring
Devils Well is a sinkhole where the roof of a cave collapsed over an underground lake about the size of a football field. A spiral staircase leads down to a platform about 100 feet above the water, which may be 80 feet deep; a motion light comes on, but bring a flashlight. The lake drains to Cave Spring on the Current River, and a moderately strenuous 4.6-mile trail runs from Devils Well down to the spring’s mouth. Open daily during daylight, free. The gravel road in is steep and rough and not suited to trailers or large motorhomes.
Welch Spring and Hospital
In 1913 an Illinois doctor, C. H. Diehl, bought Welch Spring for $800 and built a hospital over the mouth of its cave, believing the spring water and the cool, pollen-free cave air could help patients with asthma, emphysema, and tuberculosis. He dammed the spring to push more cave air into the building and added cabins, a campground, and a show cave, but the rough roads kept visitors away, and the resort fell into ruin after he died in 1940. The stone walls still stand over the spring.
Wild Horses of Shannon County
Herds of free-roaming horses have lived along the Current and Jacks Fork for generations. When the park service moved to remove them in the early 1990s, locals fought back, and a 1996 federal law made them a permanent part of the Riverways. The Missouri Wild Horse League helps manage the herds. They roam freely, so a sighting is never guaranteed; the park says they’re seen most often around Shawnee Creek, Broadfoot, Round Spring, and Echo Bluff State Park, usually near dawn and dusk. Stay at least 100 feet away and never feed them.
State Parks & Wild Places
Missouri’s newest state parks and its longest sinkhole complex.
Echo Bluff State Park
Missouri’s 88th state park, opened in July 2016 on Sinking Creek about 14 miles north of Eminence, on the site of Camp Zoe, a summer camp that dated to 1929. A towering bluff hangs over the creek; below it are a lodge with guest rooms and the Creekside Grill, cabins, campsites from primitive to full-service, and about eight miles of hiking and mountain biking trails. Swim, fish, or float the creek, and watch for the wild horses that sometimes wander through.
Current River State Park
Built around the Alton Club, a riverside retreat the Alton Box Board Company of Alton, Illinois, built in the late 1930s and early 1940s for floating, fishing, and riding. Its rustic buildings are on the National Register, and park staff lead tours of them. The park adds views of the Current River, two small fishing lakes, picnic sites, and about nine miles of hiking trails.
Sunklands Conservation Area
One of the largest and most remote conservation areas in Missouri, in several parcels between Salem and Eminence. Its 5,744-acre natural area holds Missouri’s longest sinkhole complex, where dissolved dolomite collapsed into a chain of depressions, some holding fishless ponds and marshes full of salamanders. It’s the only known place in Missouri where monkshood, a purple wildflower, grows. No amenities; hiking, birding, hunting, and primitive walk-in camping. From Summersville, take Highway 17 west, Route K north 8 miles, then Route KB east; the east side is reached from the Riverways’ Pulltite access.
Historic Sites
A WPA courthouse and the county’s own museum.
Shannon County Courthouse
The county’s courthouse has burned again and again: the first, a $75 log building near Round Spring, in the Civil War; Eminence’s first, in December 1871; and another in May 1938. The current building was put up by the Works Progress Administration from 1939 to 1941, to plans by Springfield architect Dan R. Sanford, after voters chose to keep the county seat in Eminence rather than move it to Winona.
Shannon County Museum
The county’s history museum, run by the Shannon County Museum Association, with exhibits from “stone age to space age,” work by local artists, family photos and genealogies, and books by local authors about the county. Check the museum’s Facebook page for hours and events.
Seasonal Events
When to plan a trip.
Cross Country Trail Rides
Long billed as America’s largest trail riding establishment: several multiday rides a year, three or six days long, from a base camp near Eminence, with three meals a day, music and dancing, clinics, a tack store, and church on Sunday. Riders bring their own horses onto hundreds of miles of forest and river trails. See the ride’s site for this year’s dates.
The Bluffs Trail Runs
A spring trail race at Echo Bluff State Park, with distances from a 5K to a trail marathon on the park’s bluff and creek trails. It was held on May 2 in 2026; check the race listings for next year’s date.
Christmas in Eminence
Eminence’s holiday celebration and parade in early December (December 5 in 2026). The chamber also holds a Halloween costume contest and trick-or-treating on Main Street and an Easter egg hunt each spring.
Food & Drink
Places to eat and drink
Shopping
Antiques, boutiques, and local shops
Recreation
Outfitters, rentals, and more to do
Camping & Lodging
Places to stay
Gas & Convenience
Gas and supplies
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Verify before relying on this. Compiled from the National Park Service, Missouri State Parks, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Eminence Area Chamber of Commerce, and each venue’s own site. Hours, fees, and regulations change — check directly before a trip, especially for hunting and fishing seasons and limits.
