Bandit the Highland Guardian

Big Buffalo Creek Fen Natural Area within it — a rare wetland that preserves plant species dating back to the last Ice Age, called “glacial relict” species. That is, they are species that were common in Missouri 10,000 years ago when glaciers covered the Upper Midwest.

They say stories drift on the wind—carried from place to place until they settle like dust on forgotten maps. On a cool evening at...

It’s easy to miss, now. A stretch of quiet field with two sleepy streams—one sliding past a crumbling foundation behind the old mill, the other feeding Pole Hollow Creek like it’s always known the way.