Moberly runs 742 acres of park land across eight sites. That works out to about 54 acres of parks per 1,000 residents, against a national median of 10.6. Whatever else is true about this town, it is not short of park.
All of it is managed by the Moberly Parks & Recreation Department, 200 N. Clark Street, 660-269-8705 ext. 2040, Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two numbers worth saving: the Park Ranger at 660-998-0143, and the closure and cancellation hotline at 660-263-4856. Reservations and program registration run through the city’s online catalog.
All Moberly parks are open 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Seasonal restrooms and utilities generally run mid-April to mid-October.
The eight parks, by size
Rothwell Park — 465 acres — regional park
Heritage Hills Golf Course — 224 acres
Shepherd Fields — 20 acres — soccer
Lion’s Beuth Park — 10.7 acres
Kiwanis Park — 10.5 acres
Fox Park — 8.5 acres
Tannehill Park — 1 acre
Depot Park — 0.7 acres
Rothwell Park
West side of town, reachable from Highway 24, Holman Road or Fisk Avenue. Open daily 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. At 465 acres it is one of the largest municipal parks in Missouri, and almost everything in this guide is inside it.
Moberly Aquatic Center
100 Rothwell Park Road, just off Highway 24 West. Opened in 2009. There is no direct phone line — call Parks & Rec at 660-269-8705 ext. 2040.
Open 12 to 7 p.m. daily in season (12 to 4 p.m. on the Fourth of July). $6 a person, every age. Under one year old is free.
What’s in it: double-twist water slide, family slide, one-meter diving board, climbing wall, a current channel (a small lazy river), a zero-depth entry, a spray ground for little kids, a handicapped-accessible entry, concessions and a rentable party area. Capacity is 400.
The closure rules catch people out. The pool closes if attendance drops below eight people for 90 minutes. It closes when air temperature plus water temperature is under 140 degrees. Lightning or thunder triggers a 30-minute delay, and any further lightning restarts the clock. Rainout passes are issued only if the closure happens before 3 p.m. Season passes are not refunded for weather.
Other rules: children 12 and under need someone 16 or older with them; organized groups need one adult per five children; shower before entry; no outside food or drink; no street clothes or shoes on the deck; no tobacco or e-cigarettes anywhere, including the parking lot; no alcohol; no animals except service animals, and those may not go in the water. If you leave, you pay again to come back. Only Coast Guard-approved flotation, with a parent within arm’s reach.
Private pool party: $200 cleaning deposit plus $300 an hour, due at booking. Everyone attending counts toward the head count whether they swim or not. You may bring food and drink (no alcohol) but it stays in the concession area, and the pool concession does not open.
West sunshade rental: $20 an hour during open swim — everyone still pays regular admission.
Swim lessons are taught by certified lifeguards at several skill levels; register by phone or in person at the Parks office. And the department runs a financial assistance program that covers swim lessons and recreation sports for families who cannot afford them. Ask about it. It is not advertised.
Howard Hils Athletic Complex
2002 West Highway 24. About 80 acres: eight softball and baseball fields, three football and soccer fields, basketball courts, volleyball courts, batting cages, a concession building and a playground. Concessions open when at least two fields are in play.
Smoking is confined to designated areas by each restroom. No alcohol. A zero tolerance policy applies in leagues: a first infraction is a minimum two-game expulsion, a second removal bans you for the season.
Thompson Campground
24 full hook-up RV sites, each with a concrete pad and 50 amp, 30 amp and 110 volt service, water and sewer. Showers and restrooms are open year round. Named for former mayor Lionel Thompson. Reserve through Parks & Rec at ext. 2040 or the Park Ranger at 660-998-0143.
RV, nightly — $35
RV, weekly — $200
RV, monthly — $700 (after six months the nightly rate applies again)
Electric-only overflow — $25 a night
Group tent camping — $150 a night
Group tent camping, youth organizations such as Scouts or 4-H — $50 a night
Group camp fire pit, when the group camp is unused — $25, four hours maximum, ending by 9 p.m.
Check in 3 p.m., check out 2 p.m. Quiet time at 10 p.m. and no campfires after that. Cancel more than 24 hours ahead and you are refunded minus one night; cancel inside 24 hours and there is no refund.
The group camp takes 10 to 50 people, April through October, seven days maximum in any 90-day period, one organizer pays, no electric.
Things that surprise people: one vehicle per site, and no parking at the mini-train station. Two pets maximum, leashed and accompanied. Alcohol is not allowed outside your camper. No outside firewood — buy bundles from the Ranger. You must tow yourself in and out; no third-party drop-offs, and the rig must be a manufactured RV. In cold months a heated water hose rated to minus 20 is required. Everyone must have a permanent address, and locals — anyone with a permanent address within 30 miles — are capped at 14 days. The dump station is for paid Thompson campers only.
Next door: the one-mile miniature railroad and the Magic City Master Gardeners’ maze garden.
The lakes
Rothwell Lake — about 25 acres. Boat launch, a wheelchair-accessible fishing dock, paddleboat rentals, good shoreline fishing.
Water Works Lake — 23 acres. Originally the city’s water supply. Fishing dock and boat launch, ringed by forest, popular with birders.
Deer Pond and Beuth Pond are also named in the fishing rules.
Read this before you pack a swimsuit: swimming, water skiing, diving, ice fishing and ice skating are prohibited in every body of water on park property. There is no beach and no swimming lake in Moberly. The lakes are for fishing and boating. The only place to swim is the Aquatic Center or the YMCA pool.
Full rules, permits and boating limits are in our companion guide to fishing and boating.
Everything else inside Rothwell
Archery range — 14 targets, immediately east of the Aquatic Center down the gravel road just south of it. Open during park hours, year round. Fee is donations. Archery may be discharged at this range and nowhere else in the park.
Disc golf — two full 18-hole courses, free, though tournaments take priority. Scorecards with course maps are available in the park or at the Parks office.
Dog park — opened August 2011. Two separate sections, one for smaller or less social dogs and one for larger or more social ones. Picnic tables, benches, water hydrants, double-gated entry and a restroom for owners.
Dog park rules worth knowing before you drive over: dogs must be current on rabies; leashed and collared going in and out, and you keep the leash in your hand the whole time; choke, prong and spike collars are strictly prohibited; maximum two dogs per adult; no children under 16 without an adult; no females in heat and no puppies under four months; no aggressive dogs; no dog food or human food (small training treats are fine); fill in any holes your dog digs; no bikes, skateboards, rollerblades or motor vehicles.
Candy Cane City playground — east side of the park on the shore of Rothwell Lake, near the Lake Pavilion. Rebuilt in 2008. Two-story Skybuilder structure, ADA-accessible play areas, dragonfly teeter-totter, ladybug rider, swings, a toddler playground, a parent-child swing donated by Friends of the Park and Bob and Barb Riley, a picnic shelter and benches. The pea gravel is gone, replaced with bonded rubber.
The Magic City Line miniature railroad — Sundays 1 to 4:30 p.m., May through October. 211 Rothwell Park Road. 660-833-4601 for the hotline and group bookings. A full mile of track carrying five to six thousand riders a year, past gardens, wood carvings, a bridge and trestles, representing the historic Wabash and Norfolk & Western. Run entirely by volunteers of the Friends of the Park Foundation, a 501(c)(3). Available for reunions, birthdays and private parties, and accommodations are available for riders with disabilities. Nobody is permitted on or near the train, the track or the maintenance building unaccompanied.
War Memorial — centered on a statue of General Omar N. Bradley, the Moberly-area native who became a five-star general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The Bradley monument was approved by the Park Board in March 2011 and remains the only monument to an individual; department policy is to add no more. Randolph County residents killed in service are recognized on the conflict monuments, such as the Korean Monument.
West 43 Wilderness Area — over 43 acres at 1708 County Road 2245, just west of Rothwell Park, south of the Athletic Complex and west of Water Works Lake. Bought in October 2011. Prairie grass, forest and wetland, with primitive trails for hikers, mountain bikers, horse riders and birders. Open 7 a.m. to sunset. If the gate is shut during those hours, call the Ranger at 660-998-0143.
Getting there: from Highway 24, just west of the Athletic Complex, go south on gravel County Road 2245 to the second bend; the gated entrance is on the north side. From Fisk Avenue, follow Fisk west out of town, and after the pavement ends take the first gravel road north, which is CR 2245; the gate is at the next bend. City policy is that this land will never be developed or built on — nature trails are the only permitted addition.
Tennis and pickleball — the city has six tennis courts, five of them dual-lined for pickleball, plus two pickleball-only courts. Two tennis courts sit in northwest Rothwell near the Aquatic Center; three more in northeast Rothwell on Park Drive. Courts are open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., with a 90-minute limit if people are waiting. Turn the lights off when you leave. No skateboarding, biking or inline skating on the courts.
Equestrian arena — rentable. Horses are restricted to the arena vicinity, West 43, and trails marked orange on the Rothwell Park map — but not the south side of Water Works Lake.
Also in the park: the Amphitheater, The Lodge, Riley Pavilion, Lake Pavilion, Solar Pavilion, Legacy Overlook, The Fennel, Klein Shelter House, and shelters 1, 3 and 5. All rentable — rates are in our facility rental guide.
Kiwanis Park
911 Sinnock Avenue. Opened September 10, 2025 — Moberly’s first new park in decades, serving the northeast quadrant.
A 9,000 square foot inclusive fenced playground with pour-in-place surfacing, plenty of parking, a pavilion with all-ADA aluminum tables, and heated and cooled restrooms with changing tables rated to adult capacity. That last detail is rarer than it sounds and is why the park is positioned as a regional asset for inclusive play.
Paid for with a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant and local money: gold sponsors were Randolph County Developmental Disability Services, the ICAN Missouri Foundation, the Randolph County Health Department through the Laura Fritsch Trust, the Moberly Kiwanis Club and Moberly Friends of the Park; silver, the Moberly Optimist Club and United Way of Randolph County; bronze, Fusselman Salvage and Mattox Advertising. The Moberly Housing Authority mowed the ground for years before it was a park, and the remaining green space has been kept open.
Lion’s Beuth Park
On Beuth Road. A former quarry, given to the city by brothers Tom and Bill Riffel, nephews of the late John Beuth. The Moberly Lion’s Club co-sponsored its development in the 1980s, and a rail car was converted into the footbridge out to the peninsula.
A one-third-mile hard-surface trail loop completed in 2026, barbecue grills, small open shelters, a restroom, and the bluffs that make it the local choice for reunions, company picnics and weddings.
Beuth Lake is stocked with trout and is an official Missouri Department of Conservation winter trout fishing area. Details in our fishing guide.
Fox Park
Russhaven Drive, southeast Moberly, 8.5 acres. Named for the Fox family, who sold the city the land. Open play areas, playground equipment, a restroom, a shelter house, a T-ball field and lighted courts.
One thing to check before you go: the park page says three lighted tennis courts, while the city’s newer 2025 policy manual describes one tennis-only court and two pickleball-only courts. Two were probably converted. Call ext. 2040 if it matters to your plans.
The park, the field and the shelter can all be reserved.
Tannehill Park and splash pad
Corner of Reed and Hagood, behind the Post Office downtown. Moberly’s oldest park, in use since at least the early 1900s on land the Tannehill family donated in the late 1800s.
The 1,500 square foot splash pad has railroad-themed water features, and the restroom and pump house are built to look like an old railroad depot — specifically the one still standing at Rocheport. American soldiers stopped here for entertainment and refreshments while traveling by train on their way to New York and France.
The gazebo is available for reservation. The park also holds the city’s time capsule, buried for the town’s 100th anniversary.
Depot Park
Sturgeon Street next to City Hall, anchoring the far end of Reed Street from the Post Office and Tannehill. Small — 0.7 acres — but it holds a railroad museum and a Pullman train car, and it is the site of the new trailhead that links downtown by bridge over Rollins Street into the city’s bike lane and trail network.
The Railroad Museum and Caboose sits at 100–198 North Sturgeon Street, 660-263-9396, open Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., April through October. The focus is the Wabash Railroad; the caboose and the Pullman car “the Indiana” are open for tours when the museum is open.
The whole park is rentable. More in our Depot District folder.
Shepherd Fields
1438 South Morley Street, 20 acres. Donated by Dan and Dave Shepherd in spring 2020, in their words to ensure soccer has a home in Moberly for the next generation. The city owns it; the Moberly Area Soccer Association runs it and sets league policy.
Heritage Hills Golf Course
3534 State Highway JJ. 660-269-8631. heritagehillsgolfcourse.com
The city bought the course in April 2019 and runs it in partnership with Maxim Golf. Eighteen holes over 224 acres, a fairly open parkland layout, 6,236 yards from the tips and 4,777 from the reds. Open daily roughly 8 a.m. to sunset. Hosts the Missouri Masters in August.
A membership here includes full privileges at five area courses plus reduced rates at more than fifteen private and semi-private clubs in the Maxim network, with a monthly payment option. If you golf more than occasionally, price the membership against green fees.
Note: some listings give the course number as 660-269-1429. The course’s own site says 660-269-8631 — use that.
Trails
13.3 miles of trail in the system, not counting street-side paths.
Rothwell Park has an asphalt walking trail plus miles of unpaved trail, including nature trails through the forest between the Lodge and the Athletic Complex and around Water Works Lake. City policy is that those stay nature trails — cleared for use but not surfaced or excavated — to prevent erosion, comply with state environmental rules and keep the canopy.
West 43 has primitive trails. Lion’s Beuth has the new one-third-mile paved loop. Depot Park has the downtown trailhead.
Trail etiquette, from the city’s own rules: stay off the roadway; keep right when it is busy; cyclists signal when passing; dogs leashed at all times; no motor vehicles except city maintenance and electrically-assisted bicycles.
Trails were the number one public priority in the city’s 2025 survey — paved trails named by 32 percent of respondents and nature trails by 28 percent, with nature trails scoring the highest investment priority rating in the whole plan. Satisfaction with existing paved trails runs 83 percent, and the department’s read is that the need now is connecting the trails that exist rather than building new ones. The capital list carries $1 million for concrete trail replacement in Rothwell Park.
Rules that apply in every park
Hunting and trapping — unlawful in any park, with weapons, dogs or any equipment, unless the City Council authorizes it.
Firearms — may not be carried or discharged in a park without specific permission.
Fireworks — require the Director’s authorization plus a Moberly Fire Department permit, applied for at least 60 days ahead.
Alcohol — public drinking is unlawful without a permit. Groups serving or selling at Rothwell need a picnic permit for beer-garden style events or a catering permit for events inside a facility.
Metal detecting — allowed, but not near utilities, ball fields, the Aquatic Center or the Athletic Complex. No digging deeper than 12 inches, nothing within 20 feet of a tree canopy, and no tool bigger than a hand gardening shovel.
Geocaching — allowed, as long as you damage nothing and keep caches away from facilities and maintained areas.
Animals — no loose animals, and no animals in the lakes.
Playgrounds — designed for children up to about 12.
Running a 5K in Rothwell Park? Contact Parks & Rec at least 60 days out. A race with a history of 100 or more participants may apply to use park streets; a new race, or one under 100, has to stay on the trails inside Rothwell and the Athletic Complex. Street races outside the park need City Council approval. Only temporary paint with a 30-day life.
Carnivals, fairs and circuses need a detailed proposal to the Director at least 60 days out and Park Board approval. Selling tickets before you have approval is an automatic denial.
The full Policy and Operating Manual is public, and so is the 2025 Parks and Recreation Master Plan.
The Park Board
Nine members serving three-year terms beginning June 1, with three seats appointed each year. The board meets at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of every month at 204 N. Clark Street. The December meeting usually moves to the Lodge or the James Youth Center.
Current members: John Meystrik (president), Mary Lee Noel (vice president), Russ Kennison (secretary-treasurer), Don Burton, Patrick Campbell, Rachael Grime, Kay Harris, Don Hughes and Zach Richardson.
Interested in serving? Ask for Shirley at 660-269-8705 ext. 2062.
Fees, hours and staff change. Everything here came from the City of Moberly’s own published pages, fee sheets and policy manual. Call ext. 2040 before you count on a rate. Found something out of date? Tell us.
