Bennett Springs, Missouri

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Bennett Spring is an unincorporated community in Laclede County, Missouri just minutes from the nearby town of Lebanon. It is located on Route 64 east of Bennett Spring State Park. The spring is reported variously as the third or fourth largest in the state, with an average daily flow of about one hundred million gallons and is the centerpiece of Bennett Spring State Park.

Bennett Spring State Park is the flagship of the Missouri Trout Parks, and the residents of Bennett Spring almost without fail have moved there to be closer to the fishing or the tourists it brings. The park draws the largest crowds by far, and it features the largest spring of the four parks.

Not only does the park have an abundance of nature available with hiking trails and a wide variety of wildlife, it also has a very nice restaurant, rustic lodging, a swimming, playgrounds, a nature center, a complete tackle and fly shop, and an impressive trout hatchery run by the Missouri Department of Conservation. The immediate area includes hotels and motels, canoe rental outfitters, fly fishing teachers, restaurants, campgrounds, and numerous fly shops.

The Missouri Department of Conservation stocks the spring branch nightly during the March - October trout season, and this abundance of trout is what draws anglers from across the country. In spite of crowded conditions, many fishermen return time and time again to try their luck at catching rainbow and brown trout that occasionally measure up to 30 inches and 15 pounds or more.