Ozark National Scenic Riverways, in Carter, Dent, Shannon and Texas counties, Missouri, protects 216 km (134 miles) of the clear, free-flowing, spring-fed Current and Jacks Fork rivers.
| Authorized | August 27, 1964 |
| Area | about 30,693 hectares (80,785 acres) |
| Springs | more than 425, including the largest spring in the National Park System |
| Caves | more than 400 documented |
Its ancient Ozark Highlands setting supports a rich mix of aquatic, land and underground habitats with many endemic species found nowhere else, and its cultural sites — prehistoric remains and 19th-century buildings — record thousands of years of human life.
The park's Geologic Resources Inventory report. Image from the National Park Service
A karst landscape
The riverways lie on a dissected karst plain on the Salem Plateau, part of the Ozark Plateaus. Over time the rivers and their tributaries have cut down through the bedrock, producing low mountains, rolling hills, hollows and bluff-lined valleys.
| Rock | Age | Where and what |
|---|---|---|
| Rhyolite and ash-flow tuff — igneous | Mesoproterozoic (Precambrian), the oldest | knobs in the middle of the park, near Coot, Shut-in and Russell mountains |
| Carbonate rocks — soluble | Cambrian to Ordovician (Paleozoic) | form the steep valleys, springs and karst that define the region |
| Terrace deposits and alluvium | Quaternary and Holocene — the youngest | along the rivers and their tributaries |
It is part of the Ouachita and Ozark Plateaus physiographic province, sharing its geologic history with a much wider region.
Maps and reports
The NPS Geologic Resources Inventory, which has mapped more than 270 parks, has produced geologic maps and a report for the riverways, and a Soil Resources Inventory has been completed; both are on the NPS DataStore.
Geologic map of the riverways. Image from the National Park Service
Sources
Based on "NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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