Colter's Landing - Franklin County, MO - Boat Ramps on Waymarking.com

No fees, and no restricted hours.
Ramp is on Boeuf Creek, and easy access to Missouri River without fighting big river's current.
Location of Ramp: MO-100, 2½ miles east of New Haven, MO.
Notice in the "Old Ramp: photo (river level down) and the "New Ramp" photo river is very high.

This site is named for John Colter. Some history of John Colter:
Lewis and Clark's adventure went beyond boats on the river. A shore party with hunters on horses ranged a fair distance from the river. Private John Colter and other scouts moved ahead of the boats, warning of hazards, identifying campsites and foraging for game and camp supplies.

The river and times called for extreme adventurers, so Lewis and Clark recruited skilled backwoodsmen. William Clark enlisted strong men who were expert hunters and guides, accustomed to hardship. Selected as one of the nine young men from Kentucky, Colter started out as a boatman, but was more talented as a scout. He became a valued hunter, woodsman and negotiator with the native tribes.

As the expedition returned, Colter acquired his military release in Mandan, of the Dakota's and went west to join the fur trade. He discovered Yellowstone, then later worked with Clark to complete the expedition's maps. After becoming one of the first mountain men, Colter returned to Missouri in 1810 and farmed along Boeuf Creek. Colter traveled this creek, hunting and fishing along its banks, near the trails of today's adventurers.

During the War of 1812 he re-joined the Army as a member of Major Nathan Boone's Missouri Rangers. He died in that service and was buried on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. No one has, to date, found his grave.

"John Colter's veracity was never questioned among us and his character was that of a true American backwoodsman. He was about thirty-five years of age, five feet ten inches in height and wore an open, ingenious, and pleasing countenance of the Daniel Boone stamp. Nature had formed him, like Boone, for hardy endurance of fatigue, privations and perils."
Thomas James, "Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans", 1846.