Missouri

Meramec Caverns

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

R.S. Mo. 2019.  R.S. Mo. §43.650.  R.S. Mo. §566.147 through 566.150.  R.S. Mo. §§589.400 through 589.426.  AWA Compliant .

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

3 days for initial registration and updates. 

"Residence" is defined as “any place where an offender sleeps for seven or more consecutive or nonconsecutive days or nights within a twelve-month period” §589.404(5). 

Visitors: “Any registered offender from another state who has a temporary residence in this state and resides more than seven days in a twelve-month period shall register for the duration of such person's temporary residency” §589.400.11. However, “temporary residence” is not defined. 

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Residence restriction:  offenders may not reside w/in 1,000 ft. of school or child care center.  §566.147.

Presence restriction: offenders cannot be present w/in 500 ft. of school, day care center, park with playground equipment, childrens athletic facility, pool, or Missouri department of conservation nature or education center.  §§566.147-566.150. Updated Aug. 2022.

Missouri applies Halloween restrictions to all registrants, including sign posting mandate. §589.426.  However, as of Oct. 2023 this requirement is under a restraining order pending a lawsuit brought by ACSOL.

Duration & updates:

15 years to life. Updates: Tier III – 90 days. Tier I & II – every 6 mo. §589.400

 

View of Downtown Kansas City from the WWI Memorial

Most recent visit: May 2024

Missouri is a beautiful state, but you’ll have to be pretty darned careful if you travel there.  Visitors must register if in the state for more than 7 days in a 12-month period. §589.400.11.  That makes this state precisely twice as restrictive as Indiana, which allows visitors 7 days in any six month period.  However Missouri defines “residence” as a place where you sleep.  So presumably, like Illinois, if you can drive through without ever stopping to sleep that partial day won’t count against your annual total – but if you do stop to sleep the partial days on both sides of that restful night will count and you will have chewed up two of your annual 7 day total. 

Worse, Missouri imposes several onerous restrictions that you should assume will apply to you as a visitor: 

• Offenders may not reside w/in 1,000 ft. of a school or child care center.  §566.147.  Since I am from Florida, where similar restrictions apply, I can tell you 1000 feet can be a pretty hard standard to meet.  Be careful in selecting your motel room.
• Missouri applies Halloween restrictions to all registrants, including a sign posting mandate. §589.426.  So just don’t be there on Halloween.
• Offenders cannot be present w/in 500 ft. of school, day care center, park with playground equipment (which is most of them), or swimming pool.  §§566.147-150.  Recently they added childrens athletic facilities and Missouri department of conservation nature or education centers (whatever they are) to that list.  You may want to think twice, for example, about a motel with a pool.  You may say, oh please! It’s just one night and who’s going to check?  But my job here is to warn you about any potential problems you may face while traveling.

Missouri’s restriction against being present at or within 500 feet of a “park with playground equipment” is especially problematic for vacationers.  If you think about that wording – it could be a 1000 acre state park and yet if it had just one playground anywhere, you can’t go anywhere in that park.  It makes no sense, but it means most state or local parks are OUT.  For all these reasons I have to give Missouri a travel rating of 4 thumb screws.

However, when it comes to national parks you’re probably okay because quite frankly there are few if any national “parks.”  Yes, St. Louis’s Gateway Arch is definitely a park but has no playground.  What about Ozark National Scenic Riverway?  Is that a park, and if so who’s jurisdiction is it in?  Mark Twain National Forest, which is extensive and includes many Ozark attractions, is definitely not a park.  And speaking of Mark Twain, his Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal is a privately owned attraction, not a park.

I have passed through Missouri without sleeping twice this year, most recently in June 2023 on my way to the NARSOL Conference in Houston.  Traveling south on I-35 my first stop was at Jesse James’ family home, which like Twain’s home is not a park but a privately owned attraction. Then I visited downtown Kansas City, rode their trolley and saw the City Market, Union Station and the National WWI Historic Monument & Park.  There’s no playground there either so it was no problem.

Then I had Kansas City BBQ at Slap’s, but that’s in the other Kansas City in Kansas – so when I found a nearby motel I wasn’t “sleeping” in Missouri.  Therefore even though I came back and spent a second partial day it was still zero days as far as Missouri’s registry is concerned.  George Washington Carver’s boyhood home is fascinating, it’s a National Monument not a park, and it has no playground so you’re good to go.

Mark Twain House, Hannibal

In May 2023, Mark Twain’s Boyhood Home was my first stop after entering the state from Iowa on U.S. 61.  It’s an interesting attraction and includes many restored original buildings occupied and owned by the childhood friends and neighbors who inspired Twain’s most famous characters.

Continuing south, my second stop of the day was downtown St. Louis.  On a previous trip some years ago, before I was forced to register, I had been to the Arch and ridden the elevator to the top.  On this trip I decided to avoid any questions about where I am allowed to be by skipping the Arch and exploring other areas.

Again you may say, oh please! I’m only here for a few hours and who is ever going to notice if I stroll through a city park that happens to have a playground?  If you are a Missouri registrant you may say I’m being too paranoid – that the police in St. Louis have much more pressing priorities than to bust registrants for the crime of being 490 feet from a park.  But here again my job is to warn you about the restrictions you may face as a traveling registrant, and to act accordingly in my own travels so I can report it all to you.

Upon leaving St. Louis I crossed over into Illinois, so I did not sleep in Missouri on this trip either.  My previous overnight stay was in April 2022, more than 12 months before, so I assumed I still had a clean slate of seven days and six sleeping nights available to me any time I need them.

In May of 2024, traveling from Iowa, I began a four day tour of Missouri with the first night’s stay at a motel (with no pool) in St. Louis, but after that I was turned back by car troubles so severe that upon returning to Iowa I ended up junking my car and getting another (used) Toyota Sienna.  Now I have a car that’s registered and tagged in Iowa but my driver’s license is still from Florida.  Neither Iowa DMV nor my Iowa sheriff’s department seem to care about this, but what will Florida say when I return there next fall?  I’ll let you know …

But meanwhile there I was in St. Louis overnight at a really crappy Days Inn, so I made the most of it by going on the Anhueser-Busch brewery tour. Very enjoyable!  Then the next morning I decided to live a little dangerously by going to the St. Louis Art Museum, which is justly recommended by all the tour books as a St. Louis must see.  Unfortunately it’s located within Forest Park which is another recommended must see but problematic for a registered traveler.

St. Louis Art Museum. That's the actual saint himself riding his horse out front.

It’s a huge park and although I didn’t see any playgrounds either while entering from the west or later exiting to the south (after stopping at the Jewel Box), I assume there is probably one on the far side of the park at the Visitor & Education Center.  I just stayed as far away from that as possible.  Upon entering the museum I also checked the map thoroughly to make sure they didn’t have an on-site playground or children’s rec area.  I am happy to report there are none, so if you want to follow my lead and see great art while visiting St. Louis, do so.

Now that I have a summer home in Iowa and a winter home in Florida I travel back and forth several times per year, and one of the best routes for this long two day trip is south through Missouri.  However the half-way point for this route is not in Missouri but rather at either Memphis (if I continue south on I-55 from St. Louis) or Nashville (if I turn east from St. Louis).  Therefore I have been safely passing though without sleeping, hoarding my 7 days per 12 months for when I wanted to spend more time in this beautiful state.

April 2022 was the first time I purposefully slowed down to actually see some of Missouri as part of my Deep South Tour.  Entering from Arkansas late in the afternoon my first task was to find a campground.  And remember, it couldn’t be at any state or local park for fear there might be a playground lurking somewhere.  Fortunately Mark Twain National Forest was there with several options to choose from.  As I noted above, however, staying at a National Forest campground automatically logged in two days toward my seven per 12 months, even though I had only been in state for a few hours before settling in for the night.

South Central Missouri is cave and cavern territory, so once I started cruising along I-44 there were lots of billboards advertising them.  The most advertised is Meramec Cavern, which is privately owned and not to be confused with Meramec Springs State Park.  The cavern tour was worth the stop.  After that I roamed northeasterly through the state until I joined up with my usual route up US 61, crossing the state line in mid-afternoon on my way to a fabulous Iowa cheese creamery and reaching my Iowa home by supper time.