ROARING RIVER
Written by Andy Ostmeyer | Photo courtesy Barry County Museum
This is the old lodge at Roaring River State Park soon after it was built . It was renovated a few years ago . Courtesy | Fields Photo Archives / Barry County Museum
Popular state park created by businessman with ties to Carthage
Missouri almost missed its moment .
Nearly a century ago , when the first state parks were being created , an opportunity arose for Missouri to buy a gorgeous spring and river valley in the hills of Barry County .
One of those who urged the state to acquire it was Thomas Sayman , who began his professional career as an itinerant medicine drummer from Carthage . He grew his business from a one-horse wagon in Southwest Missouri to become a multimillionaire soap seller living in St . Louis .
Sayman knew the value of the river valley south of Cassville , which had gone into foreclosure , but the state at the
time didn ’ t have the money to buy the property .
So Sayman stepped in himself , having learned of a sheriff ’ s sale at the courthouse in Cassville , and bought 2,400 acres of land for $ 105,000 in 1928 , soon after giving it to the state .
Roaring River spring , pumping out 20 million gallons of water daily from the base of a bluff , is the heart of the park , which has since grown to more than 4,800 acres . Divers in recent years pushed nearly 500 feet below the mouth of the spring , but still have not found the bottom .
Today , Roaring River State Park regularly ranks at or near the top of Missouri parks for annual visitation . For three of the last five years it was Missouri ’ s most visited park . In the last five years Roaring River has drawn between 7 and 8 million visitors .
Many come for the trout that are stuffed into the river each night during catch-and-keep season , which kicks off every March 1 and runs through Oct . 31 .
Some love the camaraderie of Opening Day - elbow to elbow and shoulder to shoulder , waiting for the siren that signals the start of a new season . For them , March 1 isn ’ t just Opening Day , but the unofficial end of winter and the beginning of spring , with the stars of the Summer Triangle visible low in the eastern sky just before dawn . Schools in the region used to close on Opening Day
because so many students - and teachers and administrators - skipped that day . Others liken Opening Day and its crowds to “ combat fishing ” and prefer Roaring River ’ s quieter moments , which can be found if you know when and where to look .
Still others come for the hiking ( 11 miles of trail exist in Roaring River ), the scenery and because their connections to the park run generations deep .
This is where their grandfather and great-grandfather fished and camped ; this is where they are teaching their grandchildren and great-grandchildren to fish and camp . Some families come back to the same campsites and the same cabins year after year .
This may also be where an earlier generation of their family , working for the Civilian Conservation Corps and the
Thomas Sayman and his wife presented the original 2,400 acres at Roaring River near Cassville to the state of Missouri for a state park in 1928 .
Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression , built the stone trout hatchery , the rustic cabins , the dramatic stone-and-timber lodge , and many of those park trails . Or maybe they stayed at Camp Smokey , the park ’ s group camp , when they were a child attending a church camp .
Whatever their connections , for many the lure of Roaring River never fades , drawing them back year after year - a legacy that families pass from generation to generation .
28 JOPLIN MAGAZINE | APRIL / MAY