With the increasing availability of personal motor vehicles and distribution of movies, the Chautauqua circuit collapsed in the early 1920s.

The Weldon family donated the springs to the county seat of Clinton in 1936, and the parcel moved to state ownership in 1948.

After the Union School was consolidated about 1950, the building was moved to Weldon Springs and restored as the state park museum and visitor center.

The 1.3-mile (2.1 km) Schoolhouse Trail accesses a restored tallgrass prairie which provides habitat for more than 30 different species of butterflies.

The spring-fed Weldon Spring Lake is managed for largemouth bass and channel catfish, with panfish also present.

Upland and bottomland forests contain silver maples, cottonwood, sycamore, and black walnut trees.