4 minute read
THE NATURE CENTER
Eric and his son Joseph scramble out of Lignite Cave during a Family Cave Hike.
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ROARING RIVER STATE PARK
CENTER
hoping to see more visitors in 2021
The Nature Center at Roaring River State Park is gearing up for another year, hoping to host in-person events soon but also planning other ways to get people involved.
Kelly Koch, interpretive research specialist, said the Center is not allowed to do any in-person events through the end of February.
“Everything is super tentative, but there are some things we may be able to do virtually,” she said. “We’re also not sure what will happen at the end of February and if we’ll open up more.”
Currently, visitors at the Center are limited to three at a time inside, or a family unit of five.
“My advice for events is if people see something they are interested in, give me a call, because things are changing daily,” Koch said. “We have received approval for an official park Facebook page, and I will be posting news, events and pictures there.”
As far as virtual programs, Koch said she is working on planning some, and one has already been promoted.
“I did post looking for interest in a bird ID class,” she said. “For those kinds of events, we will announce it on the website, make an event on the Facebook page and allow people to register, then we send a link by email to a WebEx meeting, which is another kind of Zoom platform used by the state.”
The Facebook page may be found at: www.facebook.com/RoaringRiverStatePark.
For more information about events and the Center, people may reach Koch at 417-847-3742.
For more information about events and the Nature Center, people may reach Kelly Koch, interpretive research specialist for Missouri State Parks, at 417-847-3742.
A full list of Nature Center Events on the 2021 schedule include:
Birding Boot Camp
March 19-20, all day
Wildflower Workshop
April 3, 3-5 p.m.
Arbor Day
April 4, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Earth Day
April 24, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Wild Flower Workshop
May 2, 9 a.m. to noon
Mother’s Day Wild Tea Party May 9, 11 a.m.
H2Olympics
July 17, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Fall Wild Edibles Sept. 25-26, all day
Eagle Viewing Dec. 18, 3 p.m.
Summer interpreters play Drip, Drip, Splash with young visitors during the H2Olympics. Come learn more about the properties of water, and how to conserve our water resources at the H2Olympics on July 18, 2019. (right) Family Cave hike participants get to explore two small caves while hiking along Devil’s Kitchen Trail.
Memories fly by
Jordan Larimore, left, his sister, Kenzie, father, Lee, and mother, Julie, visited Roaring River State Park in 2002, one of the family’s multiple trips per year to the southwest Missouri destination.
Opening Day veteran reconciles loss of father, memories at park
Roaring River State Park has long been known as a hotspot of memory-making in southwest Missouri, but sometimes, those happy memories can be hard to handle when a loved one in them is lost.
That was the case for years for Jordan Larimore, of Joplin, who spent countless hours at the park with his father, Lee, through the years, up until his passing in June 2013.
“I don’t know how young I was when he started going to Roaring River,” Larimore said. “The whole time I’ve been alive, and I’ll be turning 30 in April, we would go to the park a couple times a year, and he went to a lot of Opening Days. At one point, he had been going for 10 years in a row. He and his buddies would camp out the night before and do all the Opening Day stuff like being out at the horn and by the barrel fires.”
Larimore said he begged his father for several years to join him on the trip, and when he was about 11 or 12, his father finally relented.
“He was excited to bring me,” Larimore said. “It was just one of those things where there’s a lot of people and fishing takes a lot of patience. I continued to go with him for about another 10 years, but when I got into college and working full-time, it got a bit more difficult.”
Jordan Larimore, at age 15, and his sister, Kenzie, at age 12, pose with a crawdad Kenzie caught at Roaring River State Park. (right) Jordan Larimore enjoys time at Roaring River State Park with his daughter, Avery, in late 2020.
