10 years ago
• Admittedly it wasn’t what Reynolds County trapper Wayne Henson expected to see when he approached his large cage live trap Jan. 4. What waited inside was a Missouri oddity — a mountain lion.
Henson is now credited with the first live capture of a mountain lion in Missouri’s recorded history, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation.
He caught the 122-pound cat in the woods by Cook Spring, near Sutton’s Bluff, north of Centerville off county road 828 in a section of the Mark Twain National Forest in Reynolds County.
“It was kind of strange to walk up and see it,” Henson said afterward. A part-time trapper with about 30 seasons under his belt, he had been targeting bobcat and other furbearers in the past. He accumulates and sells his furs annually. (Doug Smith)
15 years ago
• Apparently I walked the wrong trail, but it was a great hike anyway. And probably better than the Sutton’s Bluff Nature Trail I set out to walk.
And there was an interesting sidelight.
The trail I walked was part of the Ozark Trail, from Sutton’s Bluff Trailhead toward Bee Fork, a few miles to the south. I parked at the Ozark Trail parking lot off a county road, across the West Fork a short distance from Sutton’s Bluff Campground. I glanced at the map and left it in the truck. I was to follow the Ozark Trail and the nature trail would branch off. (Bob Todd)