Lake Timberline, MO

Lake Timberline is a St. Francois County census-designated place built around reservoirs in the valleys of Bee Run and Primrose Creek, where the 2020 census counted 726 residents. The community sits in northern St. Francois County, six miles north of Bonne Terre and northwest of U.S. Route 67, with Jefferson County along its northern edge. Bee Run and Primrose Creek flow toward the Big River and then the Meramec.

This is a lake community in the old Lead Belt, with more than ten bodies of water spread through a gated residential development. The local map includes the Lake Timberline Volunteer Fire Department, Dogwood Chapel, Hilltop Lodge, a paddle club, a pub, camp facilities, and roads that wind between lakes and wooded lots. Culverts, swimming areas, fishing derbies, and no-wake markers are as familiar here as street signs. Lake Timberline’s story is less about a traditional main street and more about how reservoirs, private roads, clubs, and the surrounding mining country fit together six miles from Bonne Terre.