We quantified the concentrations and distribution of different soil carbon fractions – total carbon (TC), recalcitrant C measured as nonhydrolyzable carbon (NHC) and labile organic carbon measured as hydrolyzable carbon (HC), hot-water soluble C (HWC) and cold-water soluble C (CWC) at Busby forest in central Missouri. The forest soil contained large concentrations of soil organic carbon (SOC) (ranging from 26,700 to 85,000 mg C kg^-1 soil); NHC (12,500 to 47,000 mg C kg^-1 soil); HC (2,000 to 6,100 mg C kg^-1 soil); HWC (700 to 1,550 mg C kg^-1 soil); and CWC (280 to 520 mg C kg^-1 soil). Soil C fractions were correlated with each other and with total organic C with correlation coefficients (r) ranging from 0.48 to 0.87. Among these correlations, NHC was significantly correlated with TC (p = 0.0027, r = 0.63), suggesting that a higher proportion of C is in the recalcitrant fraction, consequently, promoting C sequestration in these soils. Our results also showed that more than half (51.25%) of total organic C can be stabilized in the NHC fraction in these soils. Accumulation of C in the NHC fraction reflects C stabilization and sequestration in these forest soils. This information is very important for soil C modeling, as more studies attempt to include soil C fractions.