Bay Creek Campground

public land records

Thin — A single weak source put this here. Treat the location itself as unconfirmed, not just the details.

Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Jacks Fork / Middle Current district backcountry campground. FEE: NPS backcountry-campgrounds page -- "Starting April 15, 2025, backcountry sites will require a fee year-round." Standard site (up to 6 people) $10/night; cluster site (7-20) $25/night; group site (15-45) $65/night. "All backcountry sites are non-electric." RESERVATION: "Reservations are required for all backcountry campsites and must be made through Recreation.gov." STAY LIMIT: "Camping stays are limited to 14 days in a 30-day period in the same campground." (nps.gov/ozar/learn/management/camping-regulations.htm) FIRE: campfires must be in the metal fire ring provided; "During periods of elevated fire danger, open fires may be restricted or prohibited." Fires are prohibited in caves, within 50 ft of cave mouths, and within 50 ft of designated river accesses/landings except during gigging season. ACCESS: recreation.gov directions -- "Starting in Eminence, drive west on Highway 106. After about 9.7 miles, turn left onto County Road 106-425... Follow the gravel road for just over 2 miles, until it runs into Bay Creek. This route requires driving on gravel roads for about 2 miles." recreation.gov gives the physical address as Summersville, MO. NEAREST TOWNS: Eminence and Summersville, MO. COORDINATE: mean of the per-campsite coordinates recreation.gov publishes for this campground (www.recreation.gov/api/camps/campgrounds/10344874/campsites, read 2026-08-17) (11 sites) -- but those 11 sites are strung over roughly 1.1 mi of road, so this is a campground-area centroid, not a site. That spread is why confidence is 'low'. The NPS Public POIs pin "Bay Creek" is 0.30 mi from the centroid. SOURCE: https://www.nps.gov/ozar/planyourvisit/backcountry-campgrounds.htm == NIGHTSHIFT RE-VERIFIED 2026-08-20 (fire 1180, leftover backlog pass 6: TX/TN/MO/SC/VT) == HOLDS UP. Re-read the Ozark National Scenic Riverways pages on 2026-08-20: https://www.nps.gov/ozar/planyourvisit/developed-campgrounds.htm and https://www.nps.gov/ozar/planyourvisit/backcountry-campgrounds.htm. Both still carry the fee tables and reservation wording recorded above, verbatim and unchanged. Developed page still: "Developed campsites are available by reservation only."; summer (Apr 15 - Oct 15) standard non-electric $20, standard electric $30, cluster $45, group $140; winter (Oct 16 - Apr 14) $10 / $20 / $10 / $50. Backcountry page still: "Starting April 15, 2025, backcountry sites will require a fee year-round."; standard $10, cluster $25, group $65; "All backcountry sites are non-electric."; "Reservations are required for all backcountry campsites and must be made through Recreation.gov."; and the amenity line this row quotes, verbatim: "All backcountry sites have picnic tables, fire rings, lantern posts, and vault toilet restrooms." No potable water is listed - unchanged, and the Current and Jacks Fork are surface water, so filter or boil; do not drink them untreated. SITE COUNT CONFIRMED, COORDINATE NO LONGER RE-DERIVABLE: recreation.gov facility 10344874 is "Jacks Fork / Middle Current Backcountry Campsites", covering Bay Creek plus Log Yard, Powder Mill, Blue Spring, Baptizing Hole, Shawnee Creek, Rymers and Bachers. Its campsite list (read 2026-08-20) still contains exactly ELEVEN sites named "Bay Creek Campground - Site 1" through "Site 11", matching the count this row was built from. BUT every campsite_latitude and campsite_longitude in that response is now 0, for all 59 sites - recreation.gov has stopped publishing per-site coordinates for this facility, so the centroid recorded here CANNOT be re-derived and I could not re-check it directly. Cross-check instead: NPS's own POI layer (https://mapservices.nps.gov/arcgis/rest/services/NationalDatasets/NPS_Public_POIs_Geographic/FeatureServer/0, UNITCODE='OZAR', queried 2026-08-20) carries a Campground point labelled "Bay Creek" at 37.12181, -91.50404, which is 480 m from this row's 37.11756, -91.50534. For a campground whose 11 sites are strung along about 1.1 mi of gravel river-bottom road, both points fall inside it. DECISION: approved, with the pin still flagged as a campground-area centroid rather than a site. Access is unchanged: about 9.7 mi west of Eminence on Highway 106, then County Road 106-425 and just over 2 mi of gravel.

US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.

On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.