Like many people around here, I have always had a fondness of our fine county courthouse. When I was a kid I thought the building was basically a castle, which made it even more magical in my mind. Naturally I have always wanted to explore inside up to the top.

I have a friend who works in this building now, and he was recently able to get me the hookup with a back stage pass to climb up to the top of this super rad building in Carthage.

Getting to the top requires going into what looks like a tiny broom closet and climbing up a Harry Potter-esque spiral staircase that seems to never end.
carthage courthouse missouri jasper county

Accessing the turrets wasn’t quite like I always envisioned. Instead of walking through an old door and stepping onto the balcony you step over cables, pipes, holes in the attic floor, and then climb through some ventilation ducts to get outside.
inside jasper county courthouse carthage missouri

If you keep going up a semi-rickety old wooden staircase you will find yourself up in the clock tower, which is equally cool! On this particularly it was extremely windy, probably because it’s the highest point around. From here you can easily see landmarks in many neighboring towns all over the county!
historic carthage square missouri