New Lake Area Event! Rock Island Fall Festival Coming To Stover This Weekend

As communities in central Missouri work towards and hope for the development of the Rock Island Trail, which would follow the old Rock Island Rail Line, some are already pioneering the kinds of events that punctuate a traveler’s trip along the trail.

The little town of Stover touches the very northernmost points of Lake of the Ozarks, with three Missouri Department of Conservation Access Areas, Big Buffalo Creek Conservation Area, Carpenter Memorial Conservation Area, and Wigwam Access. The former Rock Island Railroad line winds through the middle of the charming downtown district, where it was once used to deliver and pick up from the still-existing Stover Milling Company. On the east end of Dale Hollow Winery, the line exits Stover, snaking back into the countryside. The west end heads to Cole Camp, near the Big Buffalo Creek Access.

With the sponsorship of Missouri Magazine, Changes in Time Café, Lake TV, Citizen’s Farmers Bank, and Century 21 Landmark Realty, Stover will open an annual festival this weekend that celebrates the legacy of the town’s history with the Rock Island Line. The First Annual Stover Rock Island Festival begins on Saturday, Oct. 8, at 9 a.m. with an Antique Tractor Show on Main Street.

Weekend activities will be spread across the town.

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The Steam Engine Show will be located at Vickie’s Restaurant parking lot along Highway 52. Vendors, Ceremonies, a petting zoo, and live music will be scattered down Main Street until 5 p.m. Meanwhile, across Highway 52 at the Stover American Legion Memorial Park, The Rock Island Festival will hold a Wine and Brews Stroll in the Park with a Vendor Fair beginning at 1 p.m. Food contests and other activities will take place downtown. Local businesses such as Welpman Springs Brewing, Dale Hollow Winery, and Timber Ridge Winery will be featured, along with craft finger foods. The annual Wine Stroll is held in the beautiful trail section of the Legion Memorial Park.

At 5 p.m., attendees can head back to the Legion Park for the Stover Community Action Club’s Tractor Pull, where there will be plenty of food and in lieu of a beer garden this year, it will be BYOB.

Stover was originally located southeast of its current location. In 1905 when the railroad arrived, Stover moved closer to the line, since the rail bypassed the original town.