If you’ve lived here a while, you’ve probably told a visitor to “just head down to Cooper’s Landing” without stopping to explain what that actually means. Here’s the fuller picture of what’s downstream.
Cooper’s Landing is a marina, campground, general store, and live-music venue on the Missouri River near Easley, tucked into unincorporated Boone County a short drive — or a full day’s paddle — downriver from Rocheport, right along the Katy Trail. The store and deli are open 10 a.m. to sunset daily, weather depending, according to the venue’s own site, and it doubles as a boat launch, RV and tent campground, and an outdoor stage that hosts live music and trivia nights through the warm months.
The place has deeper roots than the current owners. Mike Cooper opened a bait-and-tackle shop on the site in the early 1980s, and it grew from there into the marina and campground people know today. In May 2019, he sold the property to Columbia businessman Richard King — the former owner of the Blue Note — and a group of partners, according to the Columbia Missourian. Three days after that sale closed, the Missouri River rose more than 12 feet above flood stage — the first of several floods that have hit the property in the years since, a hazard that comes with sitting in the river’s own floodplain.
That flood risk is why the newest building on the property looks different from the old one. After the general store was demolished, a flood-resistant, two-story replacement — concrete, glass, and steel, built on a raised foundation with removable flood planks — went up starting in October 2025 and opened this June, the Missourian reported.
Cooper’s Landing isn’t a mandatory checkpoint on the Missouri River 340 — the 340-mile nonstop canoe and kayak race from Kansas City to St. Charles running July 28–31 this year — but it might as well be. It’s a spot organizers list where racers can pull off, refill water, and eat something before pushing on toward the next mandatory checkpoint in Jefferson City, and this year the venue is hosting a breakfast for racers passing through on July 30.
The rest of the year, it’s better known locally for music: the venue advertises three straight “Best of Columbia” wins for live music, 2023 through 2025.
It’s easy to drive past the turnoff and never know all of that’s down there. Worth the trip, especially on a night with a band on the stage and the river running by.
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