I have been to every Missouri State Park. I also always look forward to visiting a new state park whenever one is opened in Missouri.
But I had never been to Deer Run State Park. If you have never heard of Deer Run State Park, that is because it is no longer a Missouri State Park — but it is still there.
I was recently looking at a very old map of Missouri when I saw Deer Run State Park on the map, just a little south of Ellington, Missouri.
I looked at a new Missouri map to see what is there now.
Over the years, Deer Run has been Deer Run State Park, Deer Run Refuge, Deer Run State Forest, and Deer Run Conservation Area. It is now part of the 28,000-acre Current River Conservation Area and is known as the Deer Run Unit.
Current River Conservation Area was created by the Missouri Department of Conservation in 1993 when they combined four smaller conservation areas with newly bought and donated lands.
In 1992, The Nature Conservatory bought more than 80,000 acres of land in Shannon, Carter, and Wayne counties from the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation.
