Don's Blog Sunday Adventure 12-8-19

We had to get out today despite the drab weather. We ended up at Robertsville State Park which until today has been a name on a highway sign. The park is south and east of our favorite Shaw Arboretum.

We played at the boat ramp on the Meramec River.

           
          

The river is one of the longest free flowing waterways in Missouri. It goes 218 miles from its headwaters near Salem to where it empties into the Mississippi River south of us near Arnold. From its source to its mouth it falls 1,025 feet. It is navigable from just above Meramec

Spring just south of St. James, Missouri.  Meramec Spring is the fifth largest in the state producing 100 million gallons of water  each day.

There are several marked hiking trails in Robertsville State Park. Here is one that I took.

This is a tree that was on the path. I took the image as a sort of self portrait as these days

somewhat like the  tree I am gradually unraveling.

You can see that the tree is perfectly solid and the unravelling is occurring on the surface only.

On the way home we were treated to this view of the Meramec.

Of interest is the story of the Meramec Basin Project. Because of several episodes of severe flooding, Congress

funded the project in 1938. The plan was to put several dams on the river with the main one at Sullivan, Missouri. World War II intervened. Later grass roots opposition to damming the river forced Congress to reconsider the project. President Jimmy Carter removed the funding in1981 and President Ronald Reagan later

signed a bill de-authorizing the project. It is very rare for a Corps of Engineers project to be permanently halted after work had already begun. The river is still flowing freely and still flooding regularly.