Neosho (Missouri)

Neosho is a sizeable town in Southwest Missouri and has several monikers, among them "Gateway To The Ozarks," "City of Springs," and "Flower Box City". The latter two pertain to characteristics of the town, namely the source of numerous springs as well as a citywide initiative involving flower boxes. The name Neosho is derived from a Native American word meaning "clear, cold water".

Understand

A square in Neosho

Neosho is in ways a typical Missouri town, founded by European American settlers in 1829, but it has some distinctions, one being that it was the fleeting Confederate capital of Missouri in 1861, though it changed hands a couple of times during the war and also most of the state was largely controlled by the Union. It was also home (at least temporarily to) figures like ragtime composer James Scott, entertainer Will Rogers, and innovator George Washington Carver. Moreover, it was also the tragic site of a train collision that killed 43 passengers in 1914 as the motor carriage caught fire.

Get in

Neosho is just east of I-49 between Joplin and the Fayetteville, Arkansas metro area.

See

• 1 Big Spring Park (Clark Spring), 209 N High St. Daily 7AM-10PM. A picturesque if somewhat manmade cascade flows over a precipice here in this historic spring eminence. Also the site of a municipal pool. (updated Feb 2022)
• 2 Neosho National Fish Hatchery Visitor Center, 520 Park St, ☏ +1 417-451-0554. A peculiar fish hatchery with an onion dome visitor center and locality for raising sturgeon. (updated Feb 2022)

The historic Neosho National Fish Hatchery, America's oldest operating federal hatchery

Do

• 1 Morse Park, 563 E Spring St, ☏ +1 417 451-8090. Daily 7AM-10PM. This recreational area has a number of hiking and mountain biking paths with some descents and inclines. (updated Feb 2022)
• 2 Fort Crowder Conservation Area (travel east 3.5 miles along Route HH), ☏ +1 417 451-4158. Another (albeit flat) area with some hiking and equestrian options, adjacent to Fort Crowder where Dick Van Dyke and Mort Walker were once stationed, the latter of whom used the fort as a context in his Beetle Bailey comic strip. (updated Feb 2022)

Sleep

• Best Western Big Spring Lodge, 1810 Southern View Dr, ☏ +1 417 455-2300. (updated Feb 2022)