Eight months each year, Cross Country Trail Ride, Eminence, Missouri, annually attracts from 500 to 2800 trail riders per monthly event 
to one of Missouri’s most scenic Ozark sites. The area is steeped in history. Its settlement was part of the westward migration fueled by hardy pioneers who brought little more than the sweat of their brow and a desire to carve a niche out of the wilderness for their families to live in. But they needed mills to grind the grain they raised and sawmills to process lumber for their dwellings. Today, CCTR’s trailrides through this historic area lend perspective to an ancient land as if peering through a window in time.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the federal government
enticed settlement in Missouri’s isolated Ozarks through federal grants to migrant experienced ”millwrights.” Men who could build water-powered mills that ground grain into meal and sawed logs into lumber.
Voluminous Ozark springs spewing millions of gallons of water daily and spring fed rivers, powered a mill’s water wheel or turbine. Small communities habitually
sprung up around the mills. Without the mills, these isolated Ozark communities could not have survived.
Eventually, technology rendered the mills uncompetitive. They fell idle beside idyllic settings framing the springs and streams that once powered them. Gradually, nostalgia for a bygone era and the siren call of the rivers attracted tourists and cash to, once again, recharge this remote Ozark economy.
In 1955, Mack Cottrell brought “Cross Country Trail Ride” (CCTR) to
this budding Missouri tourism scenario. The first 148 riders patrolled scenic vistas paralleling the Meramec River. By 1958, CCTR moved south to the Eminence area. After several successful years, it was sold to Ralph and Mildred Branson in 1961.
By 1961 the annual August trail ride accommodated more than 600 riders. This required camp grounds, farriers, vets, and feeding the multitudes three squares a day to support and promote this growing 
event.
Branson eventually added a June trail ride in addition to the traditional August ride. Mule riders now participated – and wagons with a variety of teams pulling them.
Branson moved CCTR to various locations around Eminence in the ‘60s. During this time, the area attracted considerable national attention when a grassroots political movement proposed damming the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers for hydro-electric power production. This incomparably scenic national-treasure was saved when a 1964 Congressional bill protected the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers 
making them the first federally protected and free flowing streams in the nation. Ozark National Scenic Rivers National Park (ONSR) then served as model for the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968.
Spawned in this often politically charged atmosphere and increasingly diverse Ozark tourist destination, every year CCTR attracted more trail riders. However, 1979 saw Ralph Branson’s health problems, coupled with concerns regarding camp-ground lease renewals, prompting him and Mildred to approach Jim and Jane Smith to consider buying them out.
The Smiths are Eminence natives. Their children were born and schooled there. Jim’s dad, C.E. “Fuzz” Smith owned substantial acreage bordering the Jacks Fork River on Eminence’s outskirts. He 
partnered with Jim and Jane to buy out the Branson’s, laid out trails used till this day and served as a CCTR trail boss into his eighties. He is now 86. Jim trail-bossed for Branson and was familiar with the August ride’s loyal clientele. Under the Smith’s ownership and guidance, CCTR’s previously vigorous growth accelerated and now has virtually galloped off the charts by growing to eight annual trail ride events.
Today’s trail head offers a roofed acre and a half indoor arena including an indoor sound stage at one end of the arena. It seats 8000,
houses a tack and saddle shop, country western store, and restaurant. However, most riders form a chow-line at the huge dining hall where more than 2000 can be served per sitting. Dining hall meals are part of the event package price. Horse shows and barrel racing are scheduled during each trailride event. All entertainment events are included in the package price for each event.
Rows of roofed horse shelters parallel camp sites with electric and 
water hookups. A custom horse-trailer dealer displays inventory on site. A veterinarian attends each trail ride. Several farriers ply their craft on horses needing shoeing. An outdoor sound stage with 4800 square foot dance floor accommodates top Nashville entertainment. George Jones helped CCTR celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2005.
An important trailhead facility is Air Evac’s helipad – a West Plains,
Missouri based helicopter ambulance service. During 2005, a severely injured rider, whose horse kicked him in the face, was at St. Louis’ Barnes Hospital within 45-minutes of Air Evac’s CCTR departure. As remote as the community of Eminence and near by villages are from professional ER and trauma hospital services, the addition of the helipad to CCTR’s complex is as important to residents of this remote corner of the Ozarks as it is to tourists visiting the area.
Many CCTR riders return year after year. Organized rides start in April continuing thereafter each month through November. Those attending five consecutive years, receive commemorative belt buckles.
The August ride’s 2005 50th anniversary, saw Ms. Lou Watson, 
Godfrey, Illinois, awarded CCTR’s only rider’s 50th anniversary belt buckle. Lou attended the inaugural 1955 trail ride and never missed after that. Ninety two years young August 2005, her personal story of life-long addictions to horses and mules is a tale unto itself starting with delivering groceries as a preteen in horse drawn wagons from her dad’s Delphi, Illinois grocery store. Jim and Jane Smith regard her as extended family. They often send a vehicle to bring her to an event from her home near St. Louis. Her picture with Jim Smith awarding her 50th anniversary belt buckle is a story unto itself.
Danny Foster, 23-year career officer in Alexandria, Louisiana’s
police department, attended his seventh consecutive August trail ride in 2006. His paint, “Conclusive Cowboy,” won August’s 2006 horse show’s pleasure class. Foster poses unsuspectingly atop Conclusive Cowboy while snapping a pic of Jacks Fork scenery that has drawn him back to Missouri’s Ozarks from Louisiana every August for the last seven years.
Young married couples that grew up attending an annual ride now trail boss their youngsters while the grandparents often graduate to buckboards converted into chuck-wagons when chasing down the rest of the trail-riding family at noon. Some trail riders met and eventually married on CCTR’s various organized rides.
Accompanying approximately 100-miles of trails on Smith property bordering the Jacks Fork River, recently the National Park Service 
(NPS) added 23.5 miles of horse trails, blueprinting an additional 18 miles that are currently passing preliminary environmental impact studies, all of which will eventually tie into CCTR’s trails when completed. Additionally, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) added 9-miles of horse trails on state land. The MDC is currently completing a day-riders’ staging area to accommodate approximately 40-parked trailers, restroom facilities and hitching rails.
No overnight camping is permitted on the latter MDC or NPS trail ride staging areas. CCTR’s camp ground facilities are not open for campers or riders in between their scheduled monthly events either. Check the sidebar for phone numbers and local agencies to help schedule a visit.
Did I mention bear and mountain lion sightings and a congressionally protected wild horse herd that roams around the trail rides’ vicinity?
The MDC, NPS and CCTR are cooperating in the design, construction and maintenance of their combined trails for future trail riders’ enjoyment of the ultimate Ozark wilderness experience amongst some of the Ozarks’ most scenic vistas.
CCTR’s Smiths and the entire Eminence area extend a warm and sincere Ozark welcome: “Y’all come - y’hear!”
2007 CCTR TRAIL RIDE DATES
*April 8-14th
*May 6-12th
*June 10-16th
*June 28-July 1st
*August 5-11th
*August 31- September 3rd
*October 7-13th
*October 28-November 3rd
{CONTACT NUMBERS}
*Cross Country Trail Ride 1-573-226-3492 & 1-573-226-3883
*MDC Resource Forester, Angeline State Forest, 1-573-226-3616
*Ozark National Scenic Rivers Nat. Park Supt. Office 1-573-323-4236
*Alley Spring Campground - ONSRNP HQ 573-323-4236/Alley Spring Ranger Station 573-226-3316
*Windy’s Canoe Rental, Eminence, Missouri (toll free) 866-889-8177
{EMINENCE LODGING (**No horse boarding) (***horse boarding)}
**The Shady Lane Cabins & Motel (573) -226-3893
**Eminence Cottages (573) -226-3500
**Riverside Motel (573) -226-3291
**Cedar Stone Lodge (573) -226-5656
**Old Blue House Bed & Breakfast (573) - 226-3498
**Hawkins House Bed & Breakfast (573) - 226-5944
**Homeport Inn Bed & Breakfast (573) - 663-7887
***Coldwater Ranch Resort, LLC (573) 226-3723
CCTR advises making reservations at least four months in advance as lodging tends to fill up quickly during CCTR scheduled events.