For current and past FoRB newsletters - Click Here “Newsletters”

FoRB Financials - $$: (Click a year below to see the FoRB Annual Budget)

2023 2024

Other FoRB Board Member Roles:

Historian: Mark Lee
Website: Steve Ferguson, Kevin Roberson
Newsletter: Jim Gast

Membership: Jim Gast

Volunteer Coordinator: Steve Ferguson

FoRB Educational Consultant Staff (contracted by FoRB):

Urban Population Outreach Coordinator (UPOP): Suzan Schuetz

Educators: Sara Jimenez and Sadie Ramirez

FoRB Contact Information:

email: friendsofrockbridge@gmail.com

P.O. Box 7642 Columbia, Missouri 65205

History of the Friends of Rock Bridge (FoRB)

In summer of 1991 a small group of people, including then Park Superintendent Scott Schulte, began planning the formation of a Friends' group, to be called “Freinds of Rock Bridge” or FoRB for short. The first meeting was held August 26, 1991. That first meeting featured a talk by county planner Gene Poveromo, who spoke about the effects of city growth on the park. The agenda also included adoption of the first mission statement of the new group. That mission statement was:

“protecting and enhancing Rock Bridge Memorial State Park by encouraging use of the park for recreation and education, supporting community efforts to maintain low density development, and the acquisition of adjoining geological features”

The first FoRB stewardship program was adopting the highway (163) adjacent to the park as a priority for litter pick-up and removal. The first FoRB officers were Jeanne Barr (chair), Glennis Elder (secretary), and Susan Haines (treasurer).  

FoRB’s constitution and by-laws were formally adopted on February 24, 1992, and the organization was incorporated on December 31,1992 with annual dues of $10/$15. In the spring of 1993, there was a 25th Anniversary Dinner for the park that celebrated the park's entry into the State Park system back in 1967. The vision of a “Discovery Center” building in the park was also born in the summer of 1993, upon Lew Stoerker's (the RBMSP visionary) untimely death. 1993 was the first time the organization took a position (one of many to come) against a development project. The development project was a plan to connect Carter Lane to Rock Quarry Road. Over the next several years the Friends' group organized monthly meetings featuring guest speakers on natural history and other history topics. It also initiated a Patches for Participation project to encourage active recreation in the park, and FoRB started an annual sponsored hike to raise funds. 

FoRB’s efforts towards the design and development of the “Discovery Center” moved along sporadically until 2003 when FoRB negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Natural Resources. The group hired a director, held a charette and received plans from a renowned "green" architect for the Discovery Center project. Despite nine (9) years of effort by ForB, the board was unable to attract significant support for a $2.5 million building and a $2.5 million endowment to support its operation within the MOU timeline. In 2007 the Department of Natural Resources declined to extend the deadline on the building project and it was canceled. 

While the grand vision of the Discovery Center building and associated programs had to be set aside, at least for the near term, the organization had made significant progress seeking and gathering community support. Membership in FoRB doubled. Once the focus on the Discovery Center was set aside, FoRB set out in a new more modest direction. FoRB’s new goal was to create three education programs. Those three (3) education programs created by FoRB were: 1) Bats on Parade, 2) Nature Detectives, and 3) an Urban Outreach program. A long-term relationship with the Missouri Parks' Association (MPA) was also established, and that relationship continues to the present. MPA began providing grants to FoRB, for these programs and those grants were supplemented annually by donations from local residents. FoRB has also been a regular participant many community events over its history. 

In 2008, the City of Columbia acquired property from the Crane family that was adjacent to the north-eastern edge of the park. FoRB board members worked with RBMSP park staff, the city parks department to identify significant natural features within the Crane property. These featurs included the banks of the Gans Creek stream (which runs into the park) and a cave. All parties worked together to develope plans for this new city park with the shared goal of helping to preserve Rock Bridge Memorial State Park from significant impacts.

With an annual budget of $12,000 to $16,000, FoRB continues to work on these types of efforts that include small capital projects, park advocacy, and education, all in support of our mission. Your support as a member, volunteer, and/or donor helps us preserve and protect this outstanding resource - Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.

Self-Guided History Hike

History Hike: Park staff and a FoRB volunteer have documented the area history and created a “self-guided” history hike in the park. The self guided History Hike exits the Devil’s Ice Box Trail Head parking lot to the south and follows the Sinkhole trail for 1.7 miles. There are 20 interpretive signs that cover the “3 P’s”, or periods of history in the area. The 3 P’s are: Prehistoric, Pioneer and Park. Prehistoric (pre-1821) and covers geological and indigenous human history prior to 1821. The Pioneer period (1821 to 1964) covers the immigration of European (American) pioneers and settlers to the area, mostly from Kentucky and Tennessee, and the establishment and the ebbs and flows of life in the town of Rock Bridge Mills. The Pioneer period was sparked by Missouri statehood in 1821. The Park period begins in 1964 when the first purchase of land was made that was intended to preserve/protect the natural resources of the area for a park by Lew Stoerker and his committee. In 1967 the purchased land was donated to the State Parks System and Rock Bridge Memorial State Park was opened to the public.

The Rock Bridge Area History

During the Prehistoric period (pre-1821) the local area (including RBMSP) was frequently visited by many Paleo-Indians. The dominate indigenous group was the Missouria. While there is no evidence of long-term prehistoric settlement in the area, these indigenous people found the area attractive due to the abundant game for hunting, food from the forest (acorns, berries and roots), plus raw materials like Chert that they could use to fashion into tools and weapon points. For many years, the area has been a source of indigenous tools like arrow heads and spear points. Note: Collecting artifacts in Missouri State Parks is illegal.

The Pioneers and Settlers who discovered the Rock Bridge area in the early 1800's and began using its streams to provide power for a grist mill, its forest resources for the first paper mill west of the Mississippi and the synergy with local farmers growing grains was able to support a prosperous whiskey distillery. All of this early industrial activity was centered on the Pierpont (French for Rock Bridge). Rock Bridge served as a commercial/industrial center for the surrounding homesteads and for a local settlement called Rock Bridge Mills. Evidence of this prosperous settlement can still be found on park grounds. Rock Bridge Mills’ success and prosperity was highly dependent upon the ups and downs of the Distillery. The downs mostly created by various county, state and national “Prohibition” periods. Population in the area varied but peaked around 125 residents during one of the prosperous periods. Before the advent of air conditioning, the cave-cooled air of the Rock Bridge and the Devil's Icebox made this area a popular gathering spot for many Boone County locals. 

Between 1924 and 1964, the area of the park that included the Rock Bridge was owned by Dennis and Naomi Ingrum. They held dances in the summer near the Bridge, to take advantage of the cave systems cool air. Their children and grandchildren served as tour guides in the cave. When fundraising for a park began, the Ingrum’s were willing and happy to sell their land to the state and see it become a park.

When one of the original settler’s cabin’s ruins were being removed for visitor safety in the 1960’s, a small diary was found hidden in the crumbling stones of the cabin’s chimney. The diary was written by a local resident who lived in the park (Gans Creek Wild Area) from 1891 to 1895. The diary recounts the daily activity of a single male working to sustain himself on 40 acres in the park in 1891. Many entries include references to social events, parties, dances, shared meals, and just day-to-day activities of a 1891 pioneer. There was no name or other personal information about the writer of the “Anonymous Diary” anywhere in the original booklet. The handwritten diary was transcribed in 1994 by some local historians, and they used clues in that diary to try to find just who this person was. Based upon a single-entry documenting when the diary author went to the County Seat (Columbia) to “record his deed”, the researchers found in the County records for that day, the evidence they were looking for. The diary author was Edward Jacobs, a single man and the 40 acre parcel he purchased from the Rayburns was along Gans Creek south of where WC9 and WC10 intersect at the creek. The stone chimney rubble pile from Edward’s modest cabin can still be found if you know where to look.

Rock Bridge Memorial State Park

Moved by the tragic death of nine-year old Carol Louise Stoerker in a car accident in 1961, a group of concerned Missouri citizens led by Carol's father, Lew Stoerker, began to work together on a goal to find and acquire a safe place for children to play and experience nature. Lew Storker was a Professor of Theater at MU. The effort started with just $10 that was raised by two of Carol's young friends selling brownies and potholders door to door. That initial $10 donation and the ongoing efforts of Lew Stoerker and his group managed, to generate a generous donation of $10,000 by Dr. and Mrs. Frederick A. Middlebush. Momentum was building and a community wide effort that followed eventually raised $175,000 by 1962.

The $175,000 raised by the Storker committee was matched by state funds allowing the Missouri Division of State Parks to acquire the first 1,300 acres of land that included the Rock Bridge and the Devil's Ice Box. That original 1,300 acres was donated to Missouri State Parks and the park formally entered the system in February of 1967 with a dedication ceremony in the park.

The Missouri State Park system establishes parks based on significant historical, recreational or natural value. Rock Bridge Memorial State Park was selected as a striking example of both history and karst topography. Karst is the German word for “cave”. The underlying 3500-million-year-old Burlington Limestone has been gradually dissolved by millions of years of slightly acidic rainfall percolating into and dissolving the rock, creating and enlarging cracks, channels and holes to form sinkholes, underground streams and rivers. Some of these channels eventually formed underground caves including the Devil's Icebox, Connor’s Cave and the Rock Bridge.

The Devil's Ice Box Cave is one of the park's nine known caves, and the seventh longest/largest cave in Missouri. It has more than seven miles of mapped passageways, is the only known home of the Pink Planarian, a species of flatworm. The cave is also a major maternity colony for the endangered Gray Bat.

Karst areas are particularly sensitive to what happens in the surrounding area. Rain falling at the edge of the cave system watershed can show up in the cave streams in a matter of hours. As a result, water quality in the park can be seriously affected by poorly planned and executed development.

In addition to its historical, geological and biological significance, the park is also an important recreational resource for one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the Midwest. RBMSP currently sees over 1 million visitors per year! There are more than 26 miles of trails that are open for hiking, jogging, bicycling, and equestrian use. Visitors can find picnic, playground, group camping, and a TRIM orienteering course. The park staff and volunteers provide guided hikes, cave tours and wildlife excursions in addition to their regular educational programs.