Hardin Conservation Area is a 1993 flood story you can still read on the land

Hardin Conservation Area is a good Ray County example of land that still remembers a flood. The area sits about three-quarters of a mile south of Hardin, covers 238.5 acres, and lies in the Missouri River floodplain.

The memorable part is the 1993 flood layer. Part of the area was acquired with Emergency Wetland Reserve Program funds after eligible farmland was affected by the Flood of 1993. The area also includes a 40-acre scour hole, sometimes called a blue hole, created by that flood. That is not a decorative detail. It explains why the area has wetlands, bottomland forest, and water-control structures instead of reading like ordinary former farmland.

For wildlife, the area is mostly forested, with wetlands and stream frontage. MDC manages it for forest, woodland, wetland, and riparian habitat while allowing compatible recreation such as hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing.

For a visitor, the useful rule is simple: check MDC before you go. Floodplain places can have muddy access, seasonal limits, hunting seasons, and area rules that matter. Hardin Conservation Area is worth seeing as a Ray County landscape story, but the current MDC page is the source for what is allowed today.