Thousand Hills State Park, just west of Kirksville, Missouri, spans more than 3,000 acres around Forest Lake and blends wooded hills, recreation, and an important archaeological site. Its most notable cultural feature is a group of Native American petroglyphs at least 1,500 years old, now protected in an enclosed observation and interpretation center and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The park emerged from Kirksville’s late-1940s effort to secure a more dependable water supply, leading to the creation of the reservoir in 1952 and the transfer of surrounding land to Missouri for a state park. Today it supports boating, fishing, swimming, camping, hiking, and bicycling.