Northern Missouri
Lake Paho is Mercer County's central conservation-area lake
Lake Paho Conservation Area gives Mercer County a large MDC public-land anchor west of Princeton.
Lake Paho is not just another farm-pond name in Mercer County. MDC places Lake Paho Conservation Area in central Mercer County and lists the conservation area at 2,350.1 acres. The same area page gives directions from Princeton: take Highway 136 west four miles, then turn north on Fathom Street.
The lake itself is a defined public water. MDC’s fishing page says Lake Paho is 273 acres and is located in Mercer County. The conservation-area page adds that MDC, with financial help from residents of Mercer and surrounding counties, built the lake in the late 1940s and opened it to public fishing in 1951.
For visitors and local readers, the county identity is clear: Princeton has the courthouse, but Lake Paho is the public-land anchor west of town.
References
Where this fits: this note belongs to Mercer County. See every local note for the county on its page.