"Water Reservoirs" Top 5 Page for this destination Missouri Off The Beaten Path Tip by Bwana_Brown

There are several large dams in the Ozark Plateau, so I stopped for a closer look at one of them near the town of Warsaw.

The Harry S. Truman Dam was built by the Army Corps of Engineers to help control flooding on the Missouri River and was constructed over 15 years between 1964-1979. The dam holds back the water of the largest flood control lake in Missouri and also provides the energy to run six 27 MW hydro generators.

An interesting Visitor Center building overlooks the dam, housing an information desk, videos of the construction and a museum-like display of the geological history of the area. When I stepped outside for a brief photo opportunity, I was surprised at the number of birds that were moving around in the trees only a short distance from me. An entirely red bird dropped out of a branch and disappeared before I got a good look, but it must have been a Cardinal. In the same tree I saw a Woodpecker and then a Nuthatch moving headfirst down the trunk, one of their characteristic traits. Too bad darkness was starting to fall, I had to hit the road!