Webster bluff – Hahatonka
Jas. Bruin. Linn Creek. Mo. Unsent.
The caption on this vintage image seems to indicate that at one time Webster Bluff may have been part of large holdings of the Snyder family, known as Ha Ha Tonka. A Karst masterpiece of the Ozarks, Ha Ha Tonka – a more dramatic complex of collapsed cave, sinkholes, cliffs than any similar area – fascinated not only wealthy Kansas Citians like the Snyders, whose estate encompassed 5,400 acres but local people as well. And it still does. Ha Ha Tonka is an extremely well-attended state park today, southwest of Camdenton.
This idyllic scene could be recreated today. Google “Webster Bluff” and you’ll find it’s located in northeast Dallas County in the Lead Mine Conservation Area, which lies about halfway between Camdenton and Buffalo. You can fish, float, hike and commune with nature at Webster Bluff still. More than two miles of the Niangua River flow through the almost 8,000 acres of Lead Mine as well as 3.5 miles of Jakes Creek. The Missouri Department of Conservation identifies its highlights:
This forested area contains savanna, glades, and old fields. Facilities and features include boat ramps, an unmanned firearms range, fishable ponds, several intermittent streams, and two permanent streams (Niangua River, Jakes Creek). . . . Lead Mine Conservation Area contains many excellent examples of dolomite glade communities, oak-hickory uplands, and clear running springs.
One of those springs is named Webster as well.
Webster Bluff is just outside Ha Ha Tonka cove. As you head upriver out of Tonka cove it is about 300 yards on the left. It was also called Juanita Bluff.