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Northern Missouri

Thousand Hills State Park and Forest Lake

Thousand Hills State Park, with Forest Lake, is the main public outdoor amenity near Kirksville, offering recreation in an otherwise agricultural county.

Thousand Hills State Park sits west of Kirksville. It is the main place to enjoy the outdoors in Adair County, which is mostly farmland. The park is built around Forest Lake. Most Missouri state parks (public land run by the state) offer fishing, boating, camping, hiking trails, and day-use spots for things like picnics. Thousand Hills has all of these. It is also known for petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are pictures that ancient Native Americans carved into rock long ago. Treat this site with care, and learn about it only the way the park itself explains it. For people who live nearby or are just visiting, this is the top spot for water fun and camping. Before you go, check current facilities, camping, boating rules, and the petroglyph site with Missouri State Parks. For fishing rules at Forest Lake, ask the Missouri Department of Conservation instead of trusting secondhand lists.

References

Where this fits: this note belongs to Adair County. See every local note for the county on its page.

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Related local notes

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Thousand Hills adds petroglyphs to Adair County's outdoor story Thousand Hills State Park near Kirksville includes petroglyph interpretation as well as lake, trail, boating, and camping recreation. The assessor values it, and the collector handles the bill Adair County property tax questions split between the Assessor's value records and the Collector's tax bills, payments, and receipts. The Adair County courthouse was built as a serious records building Adair County's courthouse history highlights a large stone courthouse with fireproof construction and vaults, a useful clue to Kirksville's county-seat role. Some Adair County septic work now points to DHSS Adair County's health department points certain onsite sewage permit questions to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

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