Tunas, MO 65764

Lead Mine Conservation Area is located in northeastern Dallas County, 40 miles south of Lake of the Ozarks, 12 miles north of Bennett Springs, five miles east of Tunas, and 21 miles northeast of Buffalo. The area provides about two miles of Niangua River frontage and has a 3.5-mile stretch of Jakes Creek running through it.

The Conservation Department purchased the original 600 acres for the Lead Mine Conservation Area in 1965 through a University of Missouri land grant. Additional land was acquired with Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson funding, and the state conservation sales tax, increasing the area to 7,761 acres.

During early settlement in the late 1800s and early 1900s, some lead mining did take place near the area. However, evidence of this is hard to find.