Lake of the Ozarks State Park is a Missouri state park on the Grand Glaize Arm of the Lake of the Ozarks and is the largest state park in the state. This is also the most popular state park in Missouri, with over 2.5 million visitations in 2017. The park includes 85 mi of shoreline on the lake (which has a total of 1150 mi of shoreline—mostly privately owned); two swimming beaches with imported sand, 12 trails, the Ozark Caverns, a boat launch, and the Lee C. Fine Memorial Airport which has a 6500 ft runway. In addition there are campsites and cabins within the park. One of the most famous aspects of the park is Party Cove which is a rowdy gathering spot that has been featured on the Playboy Channel and the front page of the New York Times Travel Section.

History

The park's initial development began in 1934 with creation of a Recreational Demonstration Area (RDA), one of 46 nationally and three in Missouri established by the National Park Service to convert sub-marginal farm lands to recreational purposes. Missouri's largest RDA, now known as Lake of the Ozarks State Park, was established three years after the impoundment of the Osage River at Bagnell Dam. Three Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps were busy over sixteen camp periods constructing group camps, administrative buildings, roads, a landscaped public beach, and other facilities. In 1946, all RDAs were donated by the federal government to the state park system. The following CCC-related buildings and national historic districts were individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 under their respective NRIS number and are included in the Emergency Conservation Work (E.C.W.) Architecture in Missouri State Parks, 1933–1942, Thematic Resources: