Shaw Nature Reserve

The pollution in St. Louis decreased with the waning use of coal for heat, making it unnecessary to move the rest of the live plant collection.

[1] The Garden made five more land purchases between 1926 and 1977 amounting to the Nature Reserve's current size of 2,444 acres (9.89 km2).

Shaw Nature Reserve has several historic homes, including the Joseph H. Bascom House, built in 1879 by Confederate Colonel Thomas Crews.

The reserve also contains the Dana Brown Overnight Center, a collection of log and timber buildings from the 1850s that were moved from their original locations and reconstructed on site, and a Sod House built by reserve staff to represent the kind of lodgings that would have been used in the area's original prairies.

Daily admission is $5 for adults, free for Missouri Botanical Garden members and children 12 and younger.

Magnolia groves and daffodil fields grace the Nature Reserve in the spring.
Shaw Nature Reserve lies south of I-44 at Gray Summit, Missouri.