New Madrid County High Point Trip Report
Date: June 11, 1999
Author: Andy Martin
I started off with the manmade HP on this one, namely the US 60 overpass over the
St. Louis - San Francisco RR. Then I started on the first 2 of the 4 natural areas
in New Madrid Co. These 2 areas just north of US 60 used to be on farmland,
but are now in a shopping center.
The northern one looked to be in the Van Accessible
parking slot of the Ryans Restaurant. If you want to dine at the New Madrid HP I
suggest you choose Ryans, the McDonalds across the road is lower.
I paced off the other area here as best as I could. It looked to be near a handicapped
slot in the huge Wal-Mart parking lot.
The remaining 2 areas, just east of I55, are more interesting.
The southern on is on a sandy hill with some dinky prickly pear cactus on it.
A fence is shown on the map just north of this midget area, and it is still
there in real life.
The northern area is in a nice looking development.
I parked the car on the I55 frontage road, and walked up the driveway to the
geodesic dome-style house that sits right on top of this area. Was nervous (as usual)
ringing the door bell, but once the owner figured out what I was up to he was quite friendly.
We walked around the house, and he pointed out scars on the trees that marked the
path of the old fence line through the area (now gone). He also pointed out a
tree NW of the house with a branch that turned a couple 90 degree angles.
The owner mentioned that sometimes this was done by Indians to make "signposts".