Bell Mountain Wilderness

This is a wonderful place to spend the day hiking! 

This 9,143 acre wilderness is part of the St. Francois Mountains, one of the oldest landforms in North America and includes the second highest peak in Missouri. 

Located in Iron County, Missouri, approximately 13 miles west of Irontown and 17 miles east of Boss, Bell Mountain Wilderness offers unique insight into the ecology of Missouri. 

The wilderness area is bordered on the west by Highway A and on the east by Highway O. Hiking in the wilderness offers superb views to the east of the drop into the steep valley of Shut-in Creek below. 

Trails

Visitors frequently enter the area for daytrips or as a part of a broader journey on the Ozark Trail system which crosses through the South East corner of the wilderness. The trails and wilderness off a rugged challenge to those who want to text their navigation skills. 

Both Bell Mountain and Lindsey Mountain offer outstanding views of the surrounding area. The associated granite glades provide a variety of interesting plant and animal life.

Due to the popularity of the Bell Mountain trail and its overlap with the Ozark trail, you are likely to see other visitors. While horses are allowed, stock usage on the mountainous trails is uncommon.

Trailheads at the north and southwestern edges of the park are connected with entry and then loops crossing the mountain summit and slope, allowing for hikers to choose both the length and intensity of their hikes. 

When entering the wilderness from the Ottery Creek Trailhead a short, 2 mile trail will take you to an intersection for the Taum Sauk Ozark Trail section and the Bell Mountain trail. If you head south you will be on the Taum Sauk, if you go north on the 1 mile connector trail you will be on the Bell Mountain trail. 

Elevation: Elevations range from 1,702 feet at Bell Mountain to 970 feet in the Joe's Creek drainage. Local relief is about 600 feet and is characterized by steep felsite and rhyolite outcroppings. 

Bell Mountain Wilderness Trail

• Rating: Moderate, terrain is sometimes steep, there is limited trail marking.
• Length: 11.9 miles
• Best Seasons: Spring, Fall
• Surface Type: unsurfaced, native material

Lindsey Mountain Wilderness Trail

• Rating: Difficult, the terrain is rocky and the trail is not marked.
• Length: 2.2 miles
• Best Seasons: Spring, Fall
• Surface Type: unsurfaced, native material

Ozark Trail - Taum Sauk Section

• Rating: Varies
• Length: 35 total, 2 miles in Bell Mountain Wilderness
• Best Seasons: Spring, Fall
• Surface Type: unsurfaced, native material

Terrain and Topography

Bell Mountain is part of the St. Francois Mountain range, an igneous formation which offers some of the steepest elevational changes in Missouri. Within the wilderness alone, slopes rise from 970 feet above sea level in the drainages to 1702 feet at the mountains summit. This sloping landscapes is host to a variety of ecosystems ranging from glade clearings to channels of granite shut-ins. 

The sides of the mountain have exceedingly steep slopes where only juniper clings on rhyolite outcrops. In the valley, the woods grow thick with hickory and oak towering over the pawpaw and dogwood in the understory. 

Creeks and Streams

Shut-in Creek crosses the area. This perennial spring fed stream has several shut-ins or gorges along its course. Steep talus slopes intersect the stream at several locations, making access difficult. Joe's Creek is another small perennial stream within the wilderness. 

Vegetation and Wildlife

Vegetation

Oak and hickory are the predominate tree species, with some areas of natural oak-pine and some short leaf pine plantations. Upland brush and red cedar make up a small portion of the vegetative component. Blackjack oak, winged elm, hickories, sumac, and native grasses are found on the glades. Some areas on Bell Mountain that were cleared in the 1940's now have almost pure stands of Northern Red Oak.

Lichens abound on the exposed-surface rock. 

Four rare plants can be found in the wilderness area, including Fibrous-root sedge (Carex communis), Spotted-sheath Witchgrass (Dichanthelium yadkinense), Hairy letuce (Lactuca hirsuta) and Meads Milkweed (Asclepias meadii). 

In recent years, patches of the nonindigenous Sercicea (Lespedeza cuneata) and Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana) have emerged in the wilderness, However, the presence of these Non Native Invasive species has been limited to isolated patches rather than large clumps or colonies. 

Wildlife

Visitors have a chance to see a unique environment and combination of plant and animal communities not found in other areas of the Missouri Ozarks.

This habitat situation favors mature forest species such as pileated woodpeckers, wood thrush and oven birds. 

Moderate populations of most game species such as white-tailed deer, wild turkeys and squirrels can be found. 

The feral swine (Sus scrofa), is a non-native exotic species living and breeding within all seven of Missouri’s wilderness areas managed by the Mark Twain National Forest. Hogs sightings are reported frequently in the Bell Mountain Wilderness Area and in surrounding private property and Johnson's Shut In State Park. 

Wilderness Area History

St. Francois Mountain Range

The igneous rocks that shape the iconic structure of Bell Mountain and the St. Francois mountain range were formed by volcanic and intrusive activity 1.485 billion years ago. They are three times as old as the Appalachian range. 

Lack of marine fossil evidence suggest that these peaks may have been one of the few regions of the Midwest that were not submerged by the Paleozoic sea. 

As time flowed on, large areas of Precambrian rock became interspersed with Cambrian age sedimentary rocks, broad basins, valleys and ridge systems of dolomite chert and sandstone, forming the landscape we know today. 

Geology

The valley surrounding Bell Mountain is rich with ore deposits and is colloquially known as the “lead belt”. Here, deposits of iron, lead, barite, zinc and silver have led to local economic growth and opportunity. Outside of the Wilderness, the lead extracted is estimated to make up 90% of the supply manufactured by the US today. The wilderness itself shows some history of mining exploration. One abandoned shaft can be found along a creek. Along the southern border of Bell Mountain Wilderness, lands have recently been purchased with money from a land restoration from mines.

Henry Bell

The area draws its name from Henry Bell, a local pioneer. When he first came to the area he was greeted with an expanse of hard wood forests, brimming with oak and hickory in the valleys which faded into pine and cedar at the knobby bald. Glades offered opportunity for grazing, and game local to Missouri such as deer, turkey and rabbit were plentiful. 

Since the time of his homesteading and farming the land has been shaped by the force of human entrepreneurship. Logging occurred on portions of the land, and minerals were mined for economic resources. When Congress designated this land in 1980 through the Eastern Wilderness Act (PL 96-560), nature was once again given its way.