Places to Go

Emmett and Leah Seat Memorial Conservation Area

Located in the ecological battle zone of the Upper Grand River basin, once-vast tallgrass prairie meets the western fringe of the eastern deciduous forests, resulting in an outdoor-lover’s paradise.

Seat Memorial Conservation Area was named after Emmett Seat and his wife, Leah, who donated their 439-acre farm to the Department in 1980. The Seat farm had been in the family since 1884, when Littleton Seat settled there. The family was dedicated to restoring the land to its historic, natural state. Since the first land donation, the area has grown to 3,479 acres, providing quality hunting and fishing opportunities in Gentry and Worth counties.

The Department continues the Seat family’s vision on portions of the area by working to restore much of the native habitat that once covered this prairie landscape. Area staff manages for prairie, woodland, and forest habitats to appeal to a wide variety of wildlife and to area visitors. Native grasses and wildflowers thrive on ridge tops and gently sloping hillsides, while sycamore, walnut, ash, hackberry, and oak trees grow in bottomland forests along Big Muddy Creek. Open stands of bur oak woodland, reminiscent of pre-settlement days, grow along upland drainages throughout the area and the steeper hillsides along Big Muddy Creek in the southeast.

Seat Memorial Conservation Area is one of the Department’s 19 Quail Emphasis Areas, areas managed intensively to provide quality year-round habitat for bobwhite quail. Visitors will notice extensive management efforts to rid the area of invasive plant species and restoration efforts for native prairie and woodland plant communities. Other wildlife species that inhabit the area include turkey, deer, and a diverse array of grassland songbirds. The area has an unstaffed archery range, including a walk-through archery range open year-round. The walk-through range leads archers through a 30-acre portion of the area with targets placed along a trail.

The area is an especially popular destination for hunters and supports good populations of deer, turkey, rabbits, quail, and squirrels due to the creation and maintenance of diverse native grassland and woodland habitat. Eighteen fishable ponds dot the area, offering quality fishing opportunities for those anglers willing to walk area access trails to reach them.

To reach Seat Memorial Conservation Area, travel 11 miles north of Albany on Highway C, and then take Highway M approximately 4 miles east to Utah Avenue and the area’s main entrance.

—Dave Hoover, area manager

• Recreation opportunities: hunting, archery, fishing, and wildlife viewing.
• Unique features: Open restored woodlands along Muddy Creek south of Highway M.
• For More Information: Call 816-271-3100 or visit mdc.mo.gov/a8026.