CAMPANAC.Powered by public lands intelligenceMore Than Just Parks

U.S. Forest Service · Mark Twain National Forest · MO

Silver Mines

Reservable, and full this SaturdayEvery one of the 18 sites on offer is taken this Saturday, and the record lists no site held back for a walk-up. read 15:57 UTC

We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →

Watch for a cancellation Book on recreation.gov ↗

Right now: Taking bookingsSites offered on 11 of the next 11 nights read 15:57 UTC
A night: $15–$35Across the site types the agency prices
Sites: 5749 on recreation.gov

Photos · US Forest Service

60 ftLongest rig

600 ftElevation

444 ftWater · Saint Francis River

6.2 miW of Fredericktown, MO

71%Tree cover

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices

In the agency’s own words

Silver Mines Campground is located on the St. Francis River in the Mark Twain National Forest. It offers a variety of recreational opportunities and abundant historic and geological wonders. Keep reading

Recreation

Parts of the river are available for swimming, while other portions provide good fishing. Whitewater kayaking is a popular activity during the springtime when water runs high. Depending on water levels, the state holds an annual kayaking competition the third weekend of March. The 2-mile Silver Mines Trail follows both sides of the river, leading to various picnic areas. A 1.2-mile trail spurs to a popular conservation area, where visitors can view spectacular rock formations along the river.

Facilities

The campground offers dozens of single-family campsites, as well as large group sites, all available for tent and RV camping. Some sites have 30-amp electric hookups. The large group site can accommodate up to 74 people. Additional sites are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Picnic tables and campfire rings with grills are provided, as are accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Parking spurs vary from asphalt, to grass, to gravel or dirt.

Natural Features

This beautiful area is located along the St. Francis River, the only river in Missouri classified as a whitewater river. It is widely used for kayaking during springtime. The campground is located at a historic mining operation and is known for its Precambrian granite and felsite rocks. A variety of wildlife makes its home in the area.

Nearby Attractions

The Millstream Gardens Conservation Area is located eight miles west of Fredericktown, or four miles west of the campground, on Highway 72. It is home to the scenic Tiemann Shut-ins and other spectacular sights along the riverbed.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

What the agency tells you

Rule

Additional fees will be collected at the campground for extra vehicles

Rule

Group Shelter is for day use only, no overnight camping. This site is not available for reservation however is availalbe through the campground consessionaire. Site fee is $25 plus the day use fee of each vehicle. Please contact the manager at 573-783-3769.

Rule

Click here for more information on the Mark Twain National Forest

Everything else this campground posts · 1

Rule

Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Source: recreation.gov facility notices, quoted verbatim · Sep 9, 2026

Tents and rigs

Sites: 57 · 12 tent-only, 1 group
Hookups: 9 electric
Longest rig: 60 ft
Paved pads: 26 of 57
Accessible sites: None listed
Pets: Allowed
Campfires: Allowed, barring fire bans
Shade: Every site

Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets: Vault Toilets; VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 76 campsite records
Drinking water: Yes; WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 76 campsite records

Source: counted from this campground’s own campsite records, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water: River; Boating; Fishing; Hiking; Swimming; Wildlife viewing
Night sky · 66th darkest of 118 in MO: Bortle 4

Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

Full this Saturdayread 15:57 UTC

How full the weekend is nationally.

OpenBooked

Every one of the 18 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 29 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:57 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t

Booking windowThrough October 26Bookable now through October 26, 2026, the end of this reservable season, and again for March 6, 2027 through April 16, 2027. Tomorrow at 10 AM ET, availability opens through April 17, 2027.recreation.gov

A night$15–$35plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule

A weekend$38–$78DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above

If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule

Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record

Watch for a cancellation

Watch this campground

One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.

We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.

Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.

Tell me when the season opens

Watch for the season to open

One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.

We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.

Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.

Book on recreation.gov ↗

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 17

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service

A night, per site$15–$35

Standard Nonelectric$15

Tent Only Nonelectric$15

Standard Electric$25

Standard Nonelectric-Double$25

Standard Electric-Double$35

Group area, a night$50

Rates for the season the campground is in now, Mar 5, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026.

The booking feerecreation.gov

Reservation fee, booked online$8

One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.

Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.

What a stay costs

One nightDerived$23–$43

A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$38–$78

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$35 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.

If your plans changerecreation.gov

Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10

Cancellation fee$10

Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night

No-show$20 + your first night

Who keeps the booking fee

The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →

How we know this receipt · 5

Sign price: recreation.gov facility rate schedule, quoted as the agency publishes it · Sep 10, 2026

Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026

The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026

Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026

The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

recreation.gov availability, read 15:57 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

76 records · which ones have room · the site map

The sites, ranked

from 41 mapped sites

131 ftbetween you and the next site, typically

Most roomLoop GRP Riverside Pavilion 311 ftLoop SUMM 037 194 ftLoop SPRG 063 189 ftLoop SPRG 064 189 ftLoop PSNG 039 185 ft

Least roomLoop PSNG 046 70 ftLoop PSNG 048 70 ftLoop RSNG 008 72 ft

2 sites share one published coordinate and are left out of the rankings.

Source: Derived by CAMPANAC from recreation.gov per-site coordinates (nearest-neighbor distance) · Oct 12, 2026

All 76 records

53 of 76 records located

Standard23Tent only10RV / electric6Group1Type not stated9Day use1Unnamed record3

022 034 0012 Riverside Pavilion 10 12 16 17 19 2 21 25 3 XXX14 XXX23 XXX5 039 041 042 045 046 048 049 053 055 004 005 006 008 009 011 057 058 059 060 061 062 063 064 065 066 067 013 015 018 020 024 026 027 030 033 037

Aerial · Esri World Imagery

Sites: recreation.gov (RIDB), coordinates as published · Aug 23, 2026

Imagery: Esri World Imagery

SleepsTakes aUp to

Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 53 of the 76 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 56 of the 76 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.


DBLS	022	standard nonelectric	30 ft			139 ft	774 ft	172 ft	$15–$25
DBLS	034	standard nonelectric	60 ft			79 ft	809 ft	181 ft	$15–$25
GRP	001	group standard nonelectric	45 ft				594 ft	108 ft
GRP	Riverside Pavilion	day use			yes	311 ft	288 ft	175 ft	$50
MANAGEMENT SITES	10	type not stated					340 ft	184 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	12	type not stated					261 ft	106 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	16	type not stated					1,075 ft	67 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	17	type not stated					1,017 ft	131 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	19	type not stated					933 ft	164 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	2	type not stated					479 ft	205 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	21	type not stated					740 ft	249 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	25	type not stated					549 ft	385 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	3	type not stated					382 ft	84 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX	unnamed record	45 ft						$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX1	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX11	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX13	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX14	unnamed record					1,257 ft	150 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX15	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX18	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX20	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX22	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX23	unnamed record					705 ft	230 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX24	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX26	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX4	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX5	unnamed record					1,241 ftSilver Mines Dam	114 ft	$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX6	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX7	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX8	unnamed record							$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITES	XXX9	unnamed record							$33.97
PSNG	039	standard nonelectric	35 ft			185 ft	983 ft	176 ft	$15–$25
PSNG	041	tent only nonelectric				170 ft	814 ft	347 ft	$15
PSNG	042	tent only nonelectric				170 ft	909 ft	423 ft	$15
PSNG	045	standard nonelectric	30 ft			157 ft	1,079 ft	240 ft	$15–$25
PSNG	046	standard nonelectric	35 ft			70 ft	1,153 ft	254 ft	$15–$25
PSNG	048	tent only nonelectric				70 ft	1,145 ftSilver Mines Dam	268 ft	$15
PSNG	049	standard nonelectric	30 ft			91 ft	1,055 ftSilver Mines Dam	321 ft	$15–$25
PSNG	053	standard nonelectric	30 ft			125 ft	1,197 ftSilver Mines Dam	57 ft	$15–$25
PSNG	055	standard nonelectric	35 ft			125 ft	1,195 ft	92 ft	$15–$25
RDBL	004	standard electric	50 ft	50 amp		139 ft	551 ft	328 ft	$25–$35
RSNG	001	standard nonelectric	25 ft				594 ft	108 ft	$15–$25
RSNG	005	standard electric	50 ft	30 amp		103 ft	424 ft	366 ft	$25–$35
RSNG	006	standard electric	50 ft	30 amp		97 ft	394 ft	270 ft	$25–$35
RSNG	007	standard electric	25 ft	30 amp					$25–$35
RSNG	008	standard electric	50 ft	30 amp		72 ft	297 ft	303 ft	$25–$35
RSNG	009	standard electric	50 ft	30 amp		72 ft	274 ft	259 ft	$25–$35
RSNG	010	standard electric		30 amp					$25–$35
RSNG	011	standard electric	50 ft	30 amp		119 ft	246 ft	181 ft	$25–$35
RSNG	012	standard electric		30 amp					$25–$35
SPRG	057	standard nonelectric	25 ft			136 ft	745 ftTurkey Creek	183 ft	$15–$25
SPRG	058	standard nonelectric	25 ft			136 ft	866 ftTurkey Creek	289 ft	$15–$25
SPRG	059	tent only nonelectric				150 ft	921 ft	319 ft	$15
SPRG	060	tent only nonelectric				135 ft	955 ft	432 ft	$15
SPRG	061	standard nonelectric	25 ft			135 ft	893 ft	565 ft	$15–$25
SPRG	062	tent only nonelectric				158 ft	792 ft	706 ft	$15
SPRG	063	tent only nonelectric				189 ft	487 ft	743 ft	$15
SPRG	064	tent only nonelectric				189 ft	476 ft	680 ft	$15
SPRG	065	standard nonelectric	25 ft			181 ft	664 ftTurkey Creek	358 ft	$15–$25
SPRG	066	tent only nonelectric				115 ft	712 ftTurkey Creek	205 ft	$15
SPRG	067	tent only nonelectric				115 ft	624 ftTurkey Creek	122 ft	$15
SPRG	068	tent only nonelectric							$15
SPRG	069	tent only nonelectric							$15
SPRG	073	standard nonelectric	25 ft						$15–$25
SPRG	074	standard nonelectric	25 ft						$15–$25
SPRG	075	standard nonelectric	25 ft						$15–$25
SUMM	013	standard nonelectric	25 ft			117 ft	1,190 ft	170 ft	$15–$25
SUMM	015	standard nonelectric	35 ft			117 ft	1,125 ft	60 ft	$15–$25
SUMM	018	standard nonelectric	35 ft			105 ft	946 ft	180 ft	$15–$25
SUMM	020	standard nonelectric	35 ft			105 ft	870 ft	217 ft	$15–$25
SUMM	024	standard nonelectric	35 ft			131 ft	640 ft	309 ft	$15–$25
SUMM	026	standard nonelectric	25 ft			131 ft	632 ft	307 ft	$15–$25
SUMM	027	standard nonelectric	30 ft			133 ft	503 ft	438 ft	$15–$25
SUMM	030	standard nonelectric	35 ft			99 ft	656 ft	312 ft	$15–$25
SUMM	033	standard nonelectric	25 ft			79 ft	748 ft	213 ft	$15–$25
SUMM	037	standard nonelectric	25 ft			194 ft	986 ft	63 ft	$15–$25

The agency files 19 more records here that aren’t sites for the night: 1 it files as day use and 18 it types MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.

The records with no site name: Derived by CAMPANAC from the agency’s own campsite records: recreation.gov files some overnight records with no site name, only a row of X characters. A block is read as the campground’s own sites, filed without names, only where the agency types those records as campsites rather than MANAGEMENT, gives each one a coordinate, and their numbering continues the campground’s own numbered sites with no gap. Everything else is left uncounted, and where the evidence doesn’t decide the record is counted as no kind of site rather than guessed at · Sep 12, 2026

Price: Derived by CAMPANAC: each site takes the per-night rate this campground publishes for the site’s own site type (recreation.gov rate schedule). recreation.gov publishes no per-campsite fee, and a site whose type carries no published rate is left blank rather than called free · Sep 11, 2026

25 of 76 listed

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions

Coordinate37.55278, -90.43722

The mapSee it on the map

The driveDirections ↗

The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Also near hereMarble Creek Recreation AreaMark Twain National Forest · 9.0 mi

Highway K24 mi

Council Bluff Recreation AreaMark Twain National Forest · 30 mi

Greenville Recreation Area31 mi

Sutton Bluff Recreation AreaMark Twain National Forest · 32 mi

Getting there

From St. Louis, Missouri, take I-55 south to Festus, then take Highway 67 south to Fredericktown, then take Highway 72 west for approximately 4 miles to Highway D. Turn left and travel approximately 2 miles on Highway D to the recreation area.

Directions: Driving directions as the agency wrote them · Sep 9, 2026

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight36°Slight Chance Rain Showers then Mostly Cloudy18% rain

Saturday61°Patchy Frost then Sunny

Saturday Night31°Clear

Sunday66°Sunny

NWS forecast for Fredericktown, MO

Source: National Weather Service, LSX forecast office · Oct 16, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 42°F, day 69°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 21°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

100°32°10°

Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more

A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.

Measured at: FREDERICKTOWN, MO (USC00233038), 7 miles away and 160 ft higher

Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send

What threatens this place

critical

Mark Twain National Foresttransfer, logging, mining

Roadless

Anderson Mountain2,741 acres · 8 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 3, 2026

Who answers for this land

Silver Mines is in Missouri’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Jason Smith (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

Who can change it · 3

Write to somebody who can change it

Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.

The member who votes the moneyJason SmithU.S. Representative · Missouri’s 8th district
Open their contact form ↗Their record →
Your senator, on the same appropriationEric SchmittU.S. Senator · Missouri
Open their contact form ↗
Your senator, on the same appropriationJosh HawleyU.S. Senator · Missouri
Open their contact form ↗

Read the draft, or change the wording

For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.

To Jason Smith

Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.

Subject Walk-up camping at Silver Mines, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri

Dear Jason Smith,

I’m a constituent in Missouri’s 8th district. I tried to camp at Silver Mines, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, and couldn’t.

recreation.gov lists 49 of the 57 campsites the agency files at Silver Mines, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 18 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked.

1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Silver Mines keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Silver Mines. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund.

The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them.

Sent about Silver Mines (Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri) via campanac.com

To Eric Schmitt

Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.

Subject Walk-up camping at Silver Mines, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri

Dear Eric Schmitt,

I’m a constituent in Missouri. I tried to camp at Silver Mines, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, and couldn’t.

recreation.gov lists 49 of the 57 campsites the agency files at Silver Mines, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 18 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked.

1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Silver Mines keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Silver Mines. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund.

The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them.

Sent about Silver Mines (Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri) via campanac.com

To Josh Hawley

Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.

Subject Walk-up camping at Silver Mines, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri

Dear Josh Hawley,

I’m a constituent in Missouri. I tried to camp at Silver Mines, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, and couldn’t.

recreation.gov lists 49 of the 57 campsites the agency files at Silver Mines, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 18 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked.

1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Silver Mines keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Silver Mines. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund.

The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them.

Sent about Silver Mines (Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri) via campanac.com

How we know this · 4

Contacts: Contact forms from @unitedstates/congress-legislators · Sep 9, 2026

The figures in these drafts: Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress (CRS Report RS20643) · Updated December 4, 2025 · “The ship’s final procurement cost was $13,316.5 million (i.e., about $13.3 billion) in then-year dollars.”

The figures in these drafts: Salary Table 2026-GS, Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase, Effective January 2026 (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) · Effective January 2026 · “Grade 5, Step 1: $34,799 (annual rate, before locality pay).”

The figures in these drafts: Update to Civilian Position Full Fringe Benefit Cost Factor, Federal Pay Raise Assumptions, and Inflation Factors used in OMB Circular No. A-76 (OMB Memorandum M-08-13) · March 11, 2008 · “the civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor needs to be adjusted downward, from 36.45 percent to 36.25 percent”

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from

Right now: recreation.gov is offering sites on 11 of the next 11 nights, which isn’t something a closed campground does.

Sites on recreation.gov: recreation.gov’s own month availability payload for this facility, asked for October 2026, November 2026 and July 2027. It names 49 of the 57 campsites the agency files here, and every one of them carries an answer either way. A campground nobody has read carries no answer at all, never a no. · Oct 11, 2026

Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026

Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate, taken as the median across the 53 campsites here that carry a reading · Sep 9, 2026

Water: USGS National Hydrography Dataset, nearest perennial lake, reservoir, river or stream to this campground’s coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.35 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 118 rated federal campgrounds in Missouri · Sep 8, 2026

Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model

Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.

Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026