One of Snow's closest friends, George Burrows, of Van Buren, reflected that Snow had many second thoughts about those changes. A short stretch of county road in Mississippi County offers a hint of what the Bootheel was like before the turn of the century. Along route AB, on the south side of Big Lake, cypress trees tower above thick forest growth. Occasional breaks in the foliage afford glimpses of still water, mottled by shadows and brimming with life. Cypress knees help stabilize trees in lieu of deep and extensive root growth.
Low water reveal the tree's almost conical trunk.
However, it grows best in acid soils. Remnants of the old wilderness swamps and bayous survive in protected areas like Big Oak Tree State Park near East Prairie and Mingo National Wildlife Refuge near Puxico. But there is little virgin cypress left in Missouri. Some trees, planted after the great lumber boom, have reached the size of old growth. But nearly all the land in the Bootheel was logged at one time.