Driving DirectionsFrom Rich Hill, take Route A west 0.75 mile, then Route PP southwest 4.25 miles, then Route PP turns into gravel as Bates County Road 10508 and continues west about 1 mile to the lake entrance. HighlightsThis area is mostly cropland, grassland, and old fields with 93-acres woods. Facilities/features: boat ramp, Harmony Mission Lake (96 acres), and several small ponds (four acres total). About This AreaThe Harmony Mission Lake Conservation Area (1,080 acres) and Peabody Conservation Area (299 acres) are managed as one Quail Emphasis Area. Although separated by name, the areas adjoin and are managed primarily for early-succession, upland habitat suitable for Northern Bobwhite and other grassland nesting birds. The areas provide recreational opportunities to the public including hunting, trapping and camping. The areas also provide good fishing opportunity in a 96-acre lake and six water-filled strip-pits totaling 23 acres.Harmony Mission, named for the first Indian mission in Missouri, was church-funded and started in 1821. The mission was located about 12 miles east of the present conservation area next to the "Great Village" of the Osage Indians on the Marais Des Cygnes River. The Osage Indians left Missouri around 1825, but remnants of the Mission can still be found. This landscape was virgin prairie until the mid 1960's, when it was sold and cleared. At that point the land was primarily farmland until 1984, when the Department bought the area from four landowners. Now, small crop fields are mixed with old fields and native grasses.The 300-acre Peabody Conservation Area was once mined for coal and was donated to the Department around 1960. Peabody lands are largely strip mine spoil mounds that have grown up in woods. Work on the area began when Conservation Department personnel, Future Farmers of America and Vocational Agriculture school groups from Rich Hill, Butler and Adrian planted cover strips, spread lime and seeded food plots. They also started windbreaks to stop soil erosion.