About Ha Ha Tonka State Park

Thousands of visitors each year venture to the area’s best known state park to experience the quiet beauty, the striking landscape, and the intriguing castle ruins of Ha Ha Tonka. This free family attraction offers hours of enjoyment and something for everyone, with fishing, hiking, picnicking, swimming and miles of trails within the 3,700 acre state park.  The park’s #1 attraction, the castle ruins, are a must-see for first time visitors to the region. High on a bluff overlooking Ha Ha Tonka Spring and Lake of the Ozarks sits the ruin of a stone mansion that represents the most intriguing story associated with the park.

Robert M. Snyder, a wealthy Kansas City businessman, first visited the site in 1903 and was so impressed that he eventually purchased more than 5,000 acres. He envisioned a private retreat with a European-style castle, with a center atrium rising three and one-half stories to a skylight. Snyder also planned an 80-foot-high water tower, greenhouses and a carriage house. Construction began in 1905 only to be halted a year later with the untimely death of Snyder in one of the state's first automobile accidents. Snyder's sons finished building their father's dream, though not quite as elaborately as originally planned. Eventually, the property was leased for use as a hotel, until tragedy struck in 1942. The entire interior was gutted by fire when sparks from a chimney ignited the roof. The carriage house burned the same day and in 1976, the water tower was burned by vandals. Today only ruins remain.  For more information about the history of the Snyder family and the Ha Ha Tonka legacy, visit the Department of Natural Resources at http://www.mostateparks.com/hahatonka/history.htm

Perhaps lesser known than the castle are the park’s various natural attractions.  It is Missouri's premiere showcase of karst geology, and Ha Ha Tonka State Park is unique in the quality and number of its remarkable geological features. A natural bridge, 70 feet wide, spans 60 feet and reaches more than 100 feet into the air. The Colosseum is a steep-sided sinkhole measuring 500 feet long and 300 feet wide. Whispering Dell sink basin is 150 feet deep with two bluff shelters -- Counterfeiter's Cave and Robber's Cave -- both of which were used as hide-outs by criminals in the 1830s. Tall bluffs -- 250 feet high -- tower over the gorge through which Ha Ha Tonka Spring, Missouri's twelfth largest, discharges approximately 48 million gallons of water daily. All of these wonders are the result of the collapse of underground caverns in ancient geological times. Today, the spring is issuing from the mouth of a portion of the cave that still exists and continues to be sculpted within the earth.

Trails and boardwalks make it easy for visitors to experience this honeycomb of tunnels, caverns, springs and sinkholes. Visitors can peer into caves, trek through and around sinkholes, or climb from the spring to the castle on wooden steps that circle the spring chasm. A visitor center features a large relief map of the park carved from stone.

Rugged terrain, beautiful bluffs, dark caves and a castle on a cliff -- bring your camera because Ha Ha Tonka State Park has it all!

(Source: Missouri Department of Natural Resources)