Rockbridge Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch is marking its 70th birthday next week, celebrating seven decades as a cherished Ozarks hideaway that’s enjoyed continued success while overcoming a crazy mix of challenges and calamities through the years.
The resort started in 1954 in one of Ozark County’s oldest communities when Lile and Edith Amyx, with Lile’s brother Clay Amyx and his wife India, bought the picturesque village of Rockbridge with the idea of turning it into a remote respite where fishermen could stay in quiet comfort and fish for locally raised trout in the crystal-clear waters of Spring Creek. The purchase included a stately old grist mill, country store and post office, church, bank – and a colorful history.
The story of the village
The first village of Rockbridge developed in the 1830s where early pioneers settled near the junction of Bryant Creek and Spring Creek a few miles southeast of the resort’s present location. Ozark County, as originally created, was much bigger than it is today and included most of today’s Douglas County and about a third of present-day Howell County. That original Rockbridge, near the center of that super-size county, was designated as Ozark County’s seat of justice. The county’s first post office opened there in 1842…