Welcome to the Black River Gang website. This is a journal of camping trips with pictures and recipes resulting from over a decade of camping trips to the West Fork area of Black River in the Ozarks by a core group of four good friends from the Missouri Bootheel.

OUR HOME PAGE IS NOW OUR GUESTBOOK:

If you like your visit, enjoy reading our fables or possibly even had a laugh or two, we welcome you to leave us comments about this site on the bottom of this page.
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1. They must be clean and fit for public consumption.
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A little background information will make your visit more enjoyable:

In this area the “river” is more of a large stream with average depth of two or three feet and a few holes or pools ten to twelve feet deep.  The flow averages fifty feet or so in width.  The river bed varies from that to a couple hundred feet wide with gravel beds. Check out our photo gallery for a better idea of the area.

Nearly everyone acquires a nick name when interacting with this group. Some of us have several. For example; Chunkie, Dumplin’, Junior, or Wishbone are all the same guy (Charlie). Rooster (Bill) is also called the Mayor because he was first to camp in this area with his family in the seventies. Whichever campsite we are using is called “Billville” in his honor and he was elected honorary mayor for life. Radar (Denny)  and Munchkin (Jim) are the other two core members of the group. Bumble Bee  (Lee) is Rooster’s son and has camped in this area since early childhood.

Miranda (sonar), Tucker and Duke are canine members of the clan.  Unfortunately, Miranda and Duke are no longer with us. Many other two and four legged visitors have joined us over the years.  Details are in the trip journals.  The text of the first dozen or so trips are from pictures and memory or are missing since we didn’t start  our journal until later.  The blank pages in our trip log are testimony to the reasoning behind keeping a journal to capture memorable moments before they fade.

Camp Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie are riverbank campsites scattered along a mile or so of the river in the Mark Twain National Forest.   There is a cave just downstream which is home to hundreds of Indiana Brown Bats. These bats come out at dusk and spend the nights devouring mosquitoes and other insects. That and the cool air settling from the forested hills make the area ideal for enjoyable camping.   Enjoy reviewing our antics by clicking on the trip index, recipe, and photo tabs above. If you enjoy your visit, bookmark us and subscribe for email updates.

Thanks…..  The Black River Gang

Left to Right in top Photo:

Rooster

Chunkie

Munchkin

Radar

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