MO-Harmony+Mission+Lake+Conservation+Area


 * =Birding in Missouri=

Bates County
=Harmony Mission Lake Conservation Area= Rich Hill, Missouri 64779 Harmony Mission Lake Conservation Area Website Harmony Mission Lake Conservation Area Map Harmony Mission Lake Conservation Area Brochure

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Harmony Mission Lake CA
Coordinates: 38.0758, -94.4292 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

Three-fourths of a mile west of Rich Hill on Route A. Go 4.25 miles southwest on Route PP. The pavement on Route PP ends and turns into gravel as Bates County Road 10508, which continues west about one mile to the lake entrance.

This area is mostly cropland, grassland, and old fields with 93-acre woods. Facilities/features: boat ramp, Harmony Mission Lake (96 acres), and several small ponds (four acres total).

The Harmony Mission Lake Conservation Area (1,080 acres) and Peabody Conservation Area (299 acres) are managed as one Quail Emphasis Area.

Although separated by name, the areas adjoin and are managed primarily for early-succession, upland habitat suitable for Northern Bobwhite and other grassland nesting birds. The areas provide recreational opportunities to the public including hunting, trapping and camping. The areas also provide good fishing opportunity in a 96-acre lake and six water-filled strip-pits totaling 23 acres.

Harmony Mission, named for the first Indian mission in Missouri, was church-funded and started in 1821. The mission was located about 12 miles east of the present conservation area next to the "Great Village" of the Osage Indians on the Marais Des Cygnes River. The Osage Indians left Missouri around 1825, but remnants of the Mission can still be found. This landscape was virgin prairie until the mid 1960's, when it was sold and cleared. At that point the land was primarily farmland until 1984, when the Department bought the area from four landowners. Now, small crop fields are mixed with old fields and native grasses.

The 300-acre Peabody Conservation Area was once mined for coal and was donated to the Department around 1960. Peabody lands are largely strip mine spoil mounds that have grown up in woods. Work on the area began when Conservation Department personnel, Future Farmers of America and Vocational Agriculture school groups from Rich Hill, Butler and Adrian planted cover strips, spread lime and seeded food plots. They also started windbreaks to stop soil erosion. From Harmony Mission Lake Conservation Area Website || media type="custom" key="26733654"

media type="custom" key="26653936" || L460076 US US-MO US-MO-013 38.0758 -94.4292 Harmony Mission Lake CA