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The following is a sampling of stories submitted from visitors of Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park.
My husband and I had our first family camping trip there. I was six months pregnant in June and we had our older daughter with us (she was 3 at the time). When we got out tent out, we noticed that the poles were gone. So far the trip was not going very well. We had to get another tent at the store that was only a two-person tent. It was hot and I was not having that great of a time, until we went to the shut-ins. It was my first time there and I could not believe how beautiful it was. We have gone there every year since 1999. We had a family and friends trip there and everyone enjoyed themselves.
When our son and daughter were growing up, Johnson's Shut-Ins was one of our favorite camping places. We loved the boulders, rushing water and have many wonderful memories. And then there is one not quite so good. My husband was standing near the edge to take pictures, and the camera dropped from his fingers into the never-never land of water and boulders! But that never stopped us.
We've camped at the park several times over the last ten year, as well as worked in day trips. Our last visit was this past summer. We're nature lovers, especially anything to do with water. Next to visiting the Gulf of Mexico, this was our favorite water spot. Theme parks can't compare with nature. I have pictures of my children in different stages of their lives standing in the water among the beautiful rock formations. We would spend countless hours swimming, floating, kayaking and just enjoyed the clearest water we'd ever seen. We have a fond memory of being awakened by raccoons one particular night, and my young children watched in fascination as the coons opened our cooler and began to play with the eggs!
My family was the very first family to stay in Johnson's Shut-Ins the first day it was a park. My dad knew Mr. Johnson and my brother played with their boy. I remember camping one night when the pigs that used to be on the old farm roamed around our camp and ate our bathing soap. My brother (about 5 or so) was so happy. He told my mother "now I don't have to take a bath anymore, right Mom?" I think my dad still has the pass Mr. Johnson gave him when we went into the park. It was a "formality," said Mr. Johnson. It has "number one" on it. We stayed at the park many times and had already camped in the area before it was a state park.
This is a special place to me. A home away from home. I go there to get away and to enjoy nature. I first came to the shut-ins about 8 years ago when I was 17. In the summers I was down there once a week just taking it all in. Every time I was there I discovered something new. My best memory - I never knew my mom or dad my whole life. Well I found my dad this April, little did I know how many brothers and sisters I had. 11 - wow. So my siblings and I all met up at the shut-ins and stayed there for three days. One of the best times of my life. It was the first time for them; most lived out of state. They fell in love with the shut-ins. I was glad I picked the perfect state park. Second memory - about early September I had a lot going on and I needed a mini-vacation so I packed up my van and went to Taum Sauk Mountain. I set up camp, to me the best place to camp (tallest point in Missouri - can't get any better than that!). I decided to go for a hike. I did about five miles; it was breathtaking and way too hot. When I hiked back up I was extremely hot so I drove to the shut-ins, walked to the big pool of water and jumped in, went back to camp and sat there by the fire and did nothing. That was the best getaway I've ever had.
The shut-ins of my childhood still stay vivid in my memory. It was a magical place, a place of damp trails worn smooth by thousands of barefoot children and adults making their way from the gravel parking lot and campground to the first glimpse of those magnificent boulders and crystal clear water. Mask and snorkel in hand, rushing ahead of our parents while they struggled with the blankets and picnic baskets. That exhilarating rush of adrenaline as we rode the currents around the rocks and over the waterfalls. My brother and I knew that bear still roamed the woods and that Native Americans were secretly living in those old flowing hills. We spent hours searching for the mythical underwater cave that was said to originate at the top of the shut-ins and empty at the placid pool down below. If you could just hold your breath long enough you could dive through the opening and be deposited in the blue hole, like riding a waterpark sliding board.
In 1982, my wife and I and out then 8-month-old first son (Kent) traveled from our home in Branson to camp and visit Johnson's Shut-Ins on the first family vacation we had been able to afford since marrying in 1978. Thus began for use a new lifelong love affair with the shut-ins and the Arcadia Valley area. We returned once again a few years later when our family had grown to a herd of three small boys. By 1992 we lived away down south in northern Louisiana, and we had decided to give a meaningful family "rite of passage" to each of the boys upon turning 10 years old, offering them a choice of going anywhere within a day's drive for a weeklong father/son one-on-one camping trip. We assumed son Kent might choose an adventure to a seashore or out west, but he wanted to go back to the Johnson's Shut-Ins, Elephant Rocks and Lake Wappapello areas. Having heard their older brother's "ten-year-old trip" stories, our other two boys (Ethan and Neil) both eagerly wanted to go to the same beloved places. We even went so far as to arrange to arrive early so as to nab the very same campsite as on that first trip. So, a whole generation of our boys were in the quiet and nurturing environment of the JSI park when they were allowed their first cups of coffee, their first hilarious camp-cooking experiences, their first really in-depth chats with dad about the "birds and the bees." And, of course, their favorite memories -- cavorting about like aquatic mountain goats through the shut-ins themselves. The boys are now grown (or nearly so) but many of our fondest family memories will always revolve around the JSI and Arcadia Valley.
I still remember my first trip to the park with my parents like it was yesterday. I was 13-years-old and I thought that this had to be the coolest place in the world. Granted, things were a little different in 1970, but through the years and the changes, I have been drawn back year after year by the beauty and uniqueness of this beautiful place. It has become a tradition in my family also. Our oldest child is 25 and the youngest is 11 and we have to make at least one camping trip a year or it's just not summer. I don't have one or two special memories, rather a whole lifetime of them.
In June 2004, my family and I spent two nights and three wonderful days at the formerly beautiful Johnson's Shut-Ins. The beauty and the uniqueness of the area was very enjoyable. Our first night we had a little bandit (raccoon) come into our camp looking for scraps. This was while we were still sitting around the campfire. We had put all of our trash and foodstuffs out of reach for him so he waddled across the small road to a new campsite that was just unloading. They were unloading food onto the picnic table and while their backs were turned, he grabbed a whole loaf of bread and took off. You have never heard such fussing as those two late arrivals made about the loss. Later that evening you could hear the raccoon and another raccoon fighting over the bread. And we went to sleep hearing that and the noise of the falls. It was wonderful. Nature at her best and most humorous.
