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Ed_C's avatar
Ed_C
Explorer
Nov 18, 2013

Campground on the Mississippi?

Is there another park like, Tom Sawyer in W.Memphis? We are looking for something further North, just to save a few hundred miles. You can't beat Tom Sawyer but something like it would be great.

6 Replies

  • Don't know how much further north you want to go, but there is a campground on the Ohio River near Smithland KY - Birdsville - this is near Padukah.
  • Thanks all,
    Not another Tom Sawyer around, but we never used any COE facilities and now we surely will. By the way if you have stayed at T. S. in W. Memphis, AK it's GREAT!
  • there are a couple nice campgrounds in Itasca State park in Minnesota, on the headwaters of the Mississippi.
  • There are USACE recreational access facilities all along the Mississippi, often at the lock and dam sites.

    These Corps parks will not be like Tom Sawyer, they are campgrounds rather than RV parks, Several grades of CG from primitive with pit toilets to improved RV sites with power and sometimes water. Only the higher grade CGs will be listed in recreation.gov, and other the sites unconditionally available will be reservable.

    Depending on location, COE parls may not be open year round, as they rely on volunteer help which is seasonal. They will also not be available when sites are flooded, though the CGs that don't flood will be what you find available on the resrevations site.

    I've stayed in a RV park in Sikeston, nothing like Tom Sawyer but full facilites. Don't remember the name, but it was just east of I-55 on US-60.
  • Oakman wrote:
    Trail of Tears State Park near Cape Girardeau, MO has some camping along the Mississippi. There are also railroad tracks by that campground too.
    2x on the railroad track! It runs between the campground and the river about 100' behind the nearest campsite. And, there is a crossing ( meaning lots of horn toots) next to the campground. As long as you don't mind train traffic, no problems. Only a couple go through at night. Funny story - the campground host told me the trains don't bother him at all. He then mentioned that he takes out his hearing aids (both of them!)

    It was also the first campsite I've been in that had GFCI protected 30 amp receptacles.
  • Trail of Tears State Park near Cape Girardeau, MO has some camping along the Mississippi. There are also railroad tracks by that campground too.

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