Lover's Leap

Centuries ago long before the paleface came to the Ozark Mountains, there was a tribe of natives known as the Osage Indians who lived on the north shore of what is now known as Ha Ha Tonka State Park. A son of Chief Neongo of the Big Hills tribe, Conwee, was in love with Wasena, the daughter of Elkorn, Chief of the Little Hills. He desired the lovely maiden and wished to make her his wife…but she refused.

Not to be dissuaded, late one moonlit night he and several other braves crossed the Osage River close to the junction of the Niangua and snatched Wasena and her friend Irona from their beds. Fleeing the pursuit of the Big Hills tribe, Conwee, his braves, and his captives took refuge within a beautiful, stalactite filled cave as the sun rose. Wasena managed to escape and fled upward to the edge of a towering cliff that looms hundreds of feet above the Niangua River with Conwee closely pursuing. Eluding his grasp and without a backward glance, she ran forward and shot into the open air before plummeting to the valley below—death preferable to being with one she did not love. The cliff became known as Lover’s Leap.

All or nothing…in love there are no half measures.