Arrow Rock State Historic Site Open Shelter

Built in 1937 (National Park Service rustic). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

From the record

“Pattison states that the first ferrying was done here by Mr. The crossing was made by having two canoes fastened together and a platform on top.”
History of Saline County, Missouri, Carefully Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources ... with a Condensed History of Missouri; the State Constitution; a Military Record of Its Volunteers in Either Army of the Great Civil War ... Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men .. (1881). Machine-read text.

One of 26 National Register listings published here for Saline County · listed in 1985 · category: Building · built in 1937, National Park Service rustic.

Sources: the county history on the Internet Archive · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. SE of Arrow Rock, Arrow Rock, 65320
When was it listed? February 1985
Category. building
Also known as. ECW Architecture in Missouri State Parks 1933-1942 TR
Township. Arrow Rock township
When was it built? 1937
Architectural style. National Park Service rustic
National Register reference number. 85000536 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

6,926 words

The chapter on Arrow Rock Township in History of Saline County, Missouri, Carefully Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources ... with a Condensed History of Missouri; the State Constitution; a Military Record of Its Volunteers in Either Army of the Great Civil War ... Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men .., published 1881 names Arrow Rock. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

The place was formerly called "Me Arrow Rock." As such it was know by the early French voyageurs, and the trappers and hunters. This name was given to the large rock or cliff at the town. Upon the formation of the town it was christened after the rock.

Passage source: History of Saline County, Missouri, Carefully Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources ... with a Condensed History of Missouri; the State Constitution; a Military Record of Its Volunteers in Either Army of the Great Civil War ... Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men .., published 1881.

Another version of the origin of the name is that given by Mr. Nowlin, an old citizen. The Indians, in the long ago, were in the habit of crossing the river at this point, in the summer, from their encampments in the bottom, on the opposite side, where the heat, at that season, was uncommonly intense and severe. This side of the river gained, they would repair to the high bluffs, to cool off. One particularly rocky point was a favorite resort, for there a cooling breeze almost constantly swept and fanned the swarthy brows of the perspiring savages. This point was called the " Windy Rock," or the "Airy Rock," and the latter designation became the more common. When Mr. Ferrell established his ferry he called it the "Airy Rock Ferry." In time this name became corrupted or changed to Arrow Rock, and was thus known ever after. It is said that the Tennesseeans pronounced the word arrow as if it was spelled arry, or airy, and when they heard the place called Airy Rock, understood it to mean Arrow Rock.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Arrow Rock Township - 6,926 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

2 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Arrow Rock State Historic Site Open Shelter between 2018 and 2019, burning under an acre in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
22 April 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Missouri Department of Conservation	179318-02729-04222019-1445
26 January 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Missouri Department of Conservation	177772-02729-01262018-0449

Every fire recorded in Saline County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 19 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of Arrow Rock State Historic Site Open Shelter: 18 past producers, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Barium-Barite, Lead, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Barium-Barite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Poindexter Mine	Barium-Barite, Lead	Past Producer
Unknown - Barite	Barium-Barite	Past Producer
Unknown - S+G	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Arrow Rock Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Unknown
Old Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown - Ls	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown - Ls	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown - Ls	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown - Ls	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown - Ls	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Saline County

Storms near this property

2 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Arrow Rock, the town this property stands in, in 2 storm reports between 1994 and 2006: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Arrow Rock	$5,000	Large trees and power lines were knocked down.
March 2006	Hail	Arrow Rock	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Saline County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Arrow Rock State Historic Site Bridge	0.1 miles	1985
Arrow Rock State Historic Site Grave Shelter	0.1 miles	1985
Arrow Rock Tavern	0.2 miles	1972
Arrow Rock	0.2 miles	1966
George Caleb Bingham House	0.2 miles	1966
Arrow Rock State Historic Site Lookout Shelter	0.2 miles	1985

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 85000536 in Record Group 79.
Saline County	All 26 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.