State Parks Stories - Crowder State Park Edition

Crowder State Park Keeps the Secret of Leatherwood Hollow

By Tom Uhlenbrock

Missouri State Parks

TRENTON, Mo. – Tucked into the farmlands of the northwest corner of Missouri, Crowder State Park is a rich refuge of forested hills and river bottoms that holds the mystery of Leatherwood Hollow.

The popular north loop of the Thompson River Trail leads down the steep hills to the river. Detour off the trail toward a hollow nearly hidden in the forest, and you’ll come upon rock slabs and overhangs where visitors nearly a century ago carefully inscribed dates, initials and messages in the limestone.

“I haven’t heard any theories on who was writing on the rocks,” said Anna Persell, natural resource manager of the park. “All I know is they put a lot of effort into it. Why, I couldn’t tell you.”

Crowder State Park celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. The park is named for Enoch Crowder, who is known as the “father of the selective service.” Crowder was a judge advocate general when he drafted the Selective Service Act in 1917, which was credited as a key factor in helping the United States play a winning role in World War I.

Crowder also was the first U.S. ambassador to Cuba and a teacher at the University of Missouri, where a building on the Columbia campus is named in his honor.

The original 640-acre memorial park was purchased with a $10,000 legislative appropriation in 1938, six years after Crowder’s death. The tract is just a few miles from the old Crowder homestead, and adjoins the Big Thompson River, a major tributary of the Grand River. The park was expanded in 1991 to its current 1,912 acres.

But when early pioneers and later visitors took the time to laboriously chisel names and dates into the rock of Leatherwood Hollow, the area was private farmland and did not become parkland until the mid-1990s.

Most of the inscriptions are initials. One of the largest is a boxed in rectangle with two sides. One side says “Clinton Hughs, Brimson, Mo., Aug. 2, 1924, age 21.” The other says “Joe Murray, Brimson, Mo., age 19, Aug. 2, 1924.”

Persell, the park manager, noted that Brimson is a small town, population 63, a few miles from the park. Edinburg, Crowder’s hometown, is another small town nearby. But Edinburg once was larger than Trenton, the Grundy County seat, and once was home to Grand River College.

Could the names and dates have been left behind as a lark by college students with time on their hands?

Eagles and great blue herons

The Thompson River Trail is on the northern edge of the park and has a total of 8.6 miles open to hiking, mountain biking and horses. The north loop is 3.75 miles, and begins at the equestrian trail parking lot.

Traveled clockwise, the loop heads through about 100 acres of abandoned farm fields that are being returned to prairie grasses and wildflowers with prescribed burning. It then passes the old Thompson cemetery, named for Dr. William Preston Thompson, who came to the area in 1833 as the first white settler of Grundy County.

The trail descends down steep wooded hills into the valley of the Big Thompson River, also named for the doctor. A marker leads to a once crumbling two-story brick house that belonged to the family. The Friends of the Thompson House owns the five acres where the building sits, and are restoring the homestead.

The trail follows the lush riparian corridor along the river with tall bottomland trees and a forest floor where the rare lime-green ostrich fern can be found. The canopy of sycamore, hackberry, silver maple and pin oak trees holds the stick nests of a great blue heron rookery. Bald eagles have built a nest on the opposite bank further down river.

To the right of the river, rocky ravines can be seen a short walking distance into the woods, and one is Leatherwood Hollow, named for the trees that Thompson brought from his home state of Kentucky and planted on the property. From the trailhead, the walk to the hollow is about 1.5 miles.

“It’s an area of about 40 by 50 feet – there are several rocks covered with writing in this area,” Persell said. “The limestone is covered with lichens and mosses, but people keep clearing if off so you can see the names and dates. It’s kind of a cool, little spot.”

Birthday cake in September

Crowder State Park has three other shorter trails, for a total of 17 miles, and a 20-acre lake open to fishing, swimming and boating. The park rents out canoes and kayaks for use on the lake.

 “A lot of our day-time users are fishermen,” Persell said. “We do get mountain bikers, some of them coming in from other states.”

Recreational facilities at the park, many of which were begun by the Civilian Conservation Corps, include three shelter houses, one of them enclosed, a campground with 40 sites, restrooms and showers, and Camp Grand River Group Camp. Picnic sites are located throughout the park.

“We have our Fall Outdoor Discovery Day on Sept. 14 this year,” Persell said. “We’ll have a cake to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the park.”

For more information, visit mostateparks.com.

PHOTOS:        

SPS_CROWDERANNIVERSARY_001: Most of the inscriptions on the rocks in Leatherwood Hollow are initials. Tom Uhlenbrock/Missouri State Parks
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mostateparks/8792488924/

SPS_CROWDERANNIVERSARY_002: The largest message carved in the rocks at Leatherwood Hollow in Crowder State Park is the names, ages and hometowns of two local youths. Tom Uhlenbrock/Missouri State Parks
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mostateparks/8792489844/

SPS_CROWDERANNIVERSARY_003: Anna Persell, natural resource manager of Crowder State Park, poses under the ledge at Leatherwood Hollow. Tom Uhlenbrock/Missouri State Parks
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mostateparks/8792491422/