Taum Sauk, Missouri

Taum Sauk (W0M/SF-001) is a summit in the Taum Sauk State Park and is located in the St. Francois Mountains in the Ozarks. The summit is also the highest point in Missouri.

Summit Information:

Summit Name: Taum Sauk, (W0M/SF-001)

Location: Arcadia, MO

Latitude/Longitude: 37.5712,-90.7293

Date: January 20th, 2021

Parking: Free

Points: 6 + 3 (Winter Bonus)

County: Iron County

Grid: EM47pn

Weather: Partly cloudy, 30 degrees

Permit: No

Full Trip Planning Guide

Difficulty

Views

Solitude

On a Scale of 1 to 5

As part of my master SOTA plan of activating a SOTA summit in every state that has one, I still lacked a summit in Missouri. Luckily I was doing a 8 day road trip through the south and part of the midwest. Leaving Hot Springs, AR we stopped at Taum Sauk Summit (W0M/SF-001), which was going to be one of two summits (in two different states) activated today.

On the way to the summit, I did a quick radio repair of my power cable for my Mountain Topper HF radio. While I had jerry rigged it in Arkansas, I needed to fix it correctly. Fortunately, I carry a full portable electronics kit with me on long trips. I had a spare Anderson Power Pole connector and crimpers to quickly fix my issue. Good thing my wife was driving. As we made our way up to the summit, we noticed the neighborhood was looking pretty rough. I don’t think I would want to be up there after dark, as I’m sure the locals would pay you a visit.

When we arrived at the top there was a split in the road and the road we were on was barricaded indicating the road closed. While I had a back up MO site, this was bad news and going to waste a lot of time. Since we were already there, we tried the other road which took us to the summit. Not sure where that closed road led, but I got lucky this time. At the summit, I found a nice picnic table and quickly made contacts on 20 and 40 meters. Not even a minute after setting up, a security guard came blasting through at 90 mph in his truck and left. I guess things checked okay. On a side note, prior to the trip I was looking over the website for the state park and noticied this info:

“Beginning Jan. 25, 2021, and ending Jan. 30, 2021, Taum Sauk Mountain State Park will be closed for aerial gunning operations (feral hog elimination). This closure pertains to all areas of the park, including the campground and the Ozark Trail.”

Pays to research before heading to a SOTA summit, especially one 1000 miles from your home. I admit, it would have been cool to work contacts as the pig apocolaypse occurred on Taum Sauk mountain.