Favorite Ozarks Places – 17

Tags

caves, favorite_places, Ha Ha Tonka, history, karst topography, Lake of the Ozarks, springs

Ha Ha Tonka Spring

I generally avoid anything having to do with the Lake of the Ozarks, because it is so garish, messy, and utterly overcommercialized. But I have to admit that there are some beautiful scenic areas in that region, despite the overgrown forest of advertising signs that often obscures it.

One of those areas is Ha Ha Tonka, now a state park. Ha Ha Tonka was given its name by an early promoter who claimed that it was an Osage phrase that meant “laughing waters,” and if you believe that I’ve got a bridge to sell you. What it is, though, is a magnificent spring (pictured above) and a number of geologic features that are truly memorable.

It’s a wonderful place to see karst topography in its many forms. Water flowing through dolomite, with a sandstone overlay, has created a natural bridge (pictured below) and a deep chasm that connects the spring to the lake below. Before the lake, the spring fed the Niangua River, but nowadays that’s all beneath the surface. The remnants of a mill dam are still present, so one can easily imagine the community that existed there in the 19th and early 20th century.

The natural bridge at Ha Ha Tonka

The chasm is quite spectacular, similar to Grand Gulf farther south, and hiking trails wind through it in all directions. I wouldn’t recommend some of the trails for casual hikers; the rocky, rugged terrain makes for a tough clamber in some places. But there’s a paved path from the lake that nearly reaches the spring, until the rocks close in.

Most of the park’s visitors, though, visit the ruins of a big old house that overlooks the chasm from the north side. This mansion, optimistically referred to as a “castle” by the parks people, was begun in 1905 by a rich guy from Kansas City. He was killed in a car wreck the following year, but his sons continued with the construction of the house, which probably did have the best view in Missouri. It burned in 1942. I get the impression that the ruins, which the state parks people have stabilized, are preserved to maintain their current picturesque level of ruination. After all, it would lessen their attraction if they just went ahead and fell down.

Ha Ha Tonka spring, Castle in distance

As for myself, I’ve never been much interested in the opulent structures built by rich people, ruined or otherwise. The views from up there are excellent, though. Before the state obtained the property, Ha Ha Tonka was run as a private tourist attraction, with all kinds of fanciful names for the geographic features. The creation of the lake inundated some of those features, sparking a long legal battle between the owners and the electric company. The story of Ha Ha Tonka, both the geologic story and the story of the various humans fighting to profit from it, is told in excellent detail in Leland and Crystal Payton’s Damming the Osage.

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The New Park

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Current River, Jacks Fork, Missouri, National Scenic Riverways, Osage, Ozarks, parks, rivers, springs

Word comes through the news that the Missouri State Park system is creating a new park on the site of the former Camp Zoe. This is about 90 percent welcome news.

First, the good-news part. A tract of this size, this close to the Current River, is almost impossible to find. Had it been sold to a private developer, it would likely have been parceled out into speculative five-acre lots with the promise of future improvements that would likely not have occurred. Almost every county in the Ozarks has one of those would-be vacation paradises sitting undeveloped and abandoned, with a few one-acre, two-acre, or five-acre lots bought and built and the rest waiting for the inevitable tax sale. Or, it would have been developed into an exclusive private preserve, sealed off from public enjoyment for decades to come.

In addition, Sinking Creek has become one of Missouri’s few naturalized trout streams, and the odds of that creek remaining a favorable habitat for trout dramatically improve with a portion of it under state control and oversight. I don’t expect the park system to try to develop it for trout fishing, since there are already plenty of good trout parks in the state, but my point is that there will be a much closer watch on the total ecosystem in that area, which has already suffered plenty of environmental insults in the past.

Echo Bluff at the former Camp Zoe

Finally, there’s the economic benefit. Shannon County is a depressed area by any measure, and even the simple boost of the massive construction project alone will provide a big one-time jolt to the local economy. The ongoing benefits are impossible to measure, but they will be positive. Ask any local resident who lives near Sam A. Baker State Park, Cuivre River State Park, or Elephant Rocks State Park whether they’re glad to have them nearby. The local legislator quoted in the recent Salem News article about the park, who called it a “threat” to the “rights and the money of the taxpayers,” was spouting politicized nonsense of a special order.

But there are concerns as well. First, I’d have to say that the economic benefits are being oversold, as we also see in the Salem News article. The magical “multiplier effect” of economic benefits is a common trope of those is the public development biz, but I’ve never seen it touted at the laughable, nonsensical ratio of 26:1 before. That’s just nonsense. Leland and Crystal Payton, in their admirable book Damming the Osage, describe the sad history of economic wishful thinking as it applied to the creation of Truman Reservoir. This project doesn’t involve the kind of large-scale destruction that one did, of course, but it’s worth keeping in mind that forecasts of economic paradise are always baloney.

I’m also mildly concerned about all the talk of this park being described as appealing to the “upscale market” and other such code words for “people who spend more money than the usual state park visitor.” It’s true that state parks have to pay something back to the government for their maintenance and upkeep, but let’s not forget that a park system is a public trust, not a profit-making enterprise. A state park that chases too much after the luxury clientele that is better served by a private resort has forgotten its purpose for existence — to provide recreation for all the people, not just those who can afford it. Let’s hope the managers of this new park keep that mission in mind.

Sinking Creek in the former Camp Zoe

Roaring River – 2

Tags

favorite_places, Missouri, nature, Ozarks, photography, Roaring River, springs

This gallery contains 2 photos.

I have written earlier about Roaring River here. Just visited there again this week, and was struck once again by …

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The Environment and the Eleven Point

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Eleven Point, environment, favorite_places, Missouri, nature, Ozarks, parks, springs, Willow Springs

Anybody who has ever floated the Eleven Point River can testify that it is a wild, lonesome, and highly scenic stretch of water. It’s little more than a creek until Greer Spring comes in (there’s an image of Greer Spring in the background here, and I need to write about Greer Spring more).

What many people don’t know, including myself until I crossed it while on a speaking trip a year ago, is that one upper fork of the Eleven Point reaches back all the way to Willow Springs. It’s easily forty miles as the crow flies from Willow Springs to Greer, and given the twists and turns of the river, probably twice as much in river miles.

Not only is the Eleven Point a mere creek, it’s what hydrologists call a “lost” stream. A significant percentage of its water disappears as it flows southeast toward Greer, and sometimes the streambed is little more than dry gravel. Of course, that water doesn’t really disappear; it goes underground, into the many unseen rivers that flow beneath the Ozarks. This underground network of flowing water is what gives the region its many sinkholes and caves, as ground and rock give way to water.

In March, Ken Midkiff of the Sierra Club called our attention to a 33-tank petroleum storage facility in Willow Springs, very near the Eleven Point, that has little or no protection against contamination of the stream if those tanks should ever leak or seep. His article appeared in the Columbia Heart Beat blog. Now, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has picked up the story, in an article by Jack Suntrup.

Willow Springs, Missouri, is not the Chemical Valley of West Virginia, despite the somewhat alarmist comparisons. But on the “better safe than sorry” side, it only makes sense that the EPA should inspect this tank farm and prescribe whatever safety remedies it deems necessary. As the good folks of West Virginia have learned, it’s a lot easier to protect your watershed before a disaster than to try to clean up and restore afterward.

Here’s a map of the Eleven Point watershed.

Favorite Ozarks Places – 13

Tags

Black River, favorite_places, Markham Springs, Missouri, Ozarks, rivers, springs

Markham Springs

(photo from US Forest Service)

Markham Springs is off Missouri 49 between Williamsville and Ellsinore (much closer to Williamsville). When I lived in Piedmont, long ago, I visited here occasionally. It has a beautiful mill pond, as you can see, with six different springs that feed around five million gallons of water into it each day. There’s another spring, a “bubble spring” with a constant flow of air bubbles, nearby.

When I visited the spring years ago, the house seen above was a vacant wreck. It had been built in the late ’30s and early ’40s, but when its owner sold the land to the Forest Service in the ’60s, the house was left empty and began to deteriorate. But in 2010, the Forest Service, recognizing the historic value of the house, entered into an agreement with a group of craftspeople. They restored the house at no cost to the government, and in return they get to use it for a vacation home. When they’re not using it, they rent it out.

I have very fond memories of walking the campground loops at Markham Springs. Its remoteness and its lack of developed facilities make it comparatively unfrequented, but it’s a beautiful location along the Black River. And any day I get to dip my feet in the Black River is by definition a good day.

Favorite Ozarks Places – 11

Tags

favorite_places, Missouri, nature, Ozarks, parks, springs

Grand Gulf

This is a new place to me. I had always wanted to visit Grand Gulf, but its remote location had prevented me. Then on my way back from the Arkansas Literary Festival late last month, I realized that the highway would take me within six miles of this park.

Grand Gulf is a collapsed cave system, with what once had been the walls of the cave now forming the walls of a canyon about 130 feet deep. Trails wind along the top of the gulf, although for obvious  reasons there are no trails to the bottom. Any “trail” to the bottom would quickly become a “plummet” instead.

The water that flows through Grand Gulf shows up, one to four days later, at Mammoth Spring in Arkansas, nine miles away. The whole complex is a nifty illustration of karst topography in the Ozarks.

Favorite Ozarks Places – 9

Tags

favorite_places, fishing, lakes, Missouri, Ozarks, parks, Roaring River, springs

Roaring River Spring

Uploaded from Wikimedia Commons

I’ve never understood the appeal of trout fishing in Missouri. The trout are raised in hatcheries such as the one at Roaring River Spring, fed well, then released at regular intervals so that anglers can haul them out of the water again a few hundred yards downstream. In a few places, the trout have naturalized, but for the most part it feels to me like an exercise in absurdity.

I can certainly understand the pleasures of fishing, though, and the delight in spending time along a chilly Ozark stream. So I’ll not begrudge others their fun, and will just avoid Roaring River during trout season.

It’s an odd “river”. . . it just runs a couple miles before getting swallowed up in the inert water of Table Rock Lake. I would have loved to have seen Roaring River in the days before those streams were dammed.

Which reminds me! The new book on the turbulent and sometimes sordid history of the damming of the Osage River and subsequent creation of the Lake of the Ozarks is about to come out. I’m looking forward to it! Check it out here.

Favorite Ozarks Places – 7

Tags

favorite_places, Irish Wilderness, Missouri, nature, Ozarks, springs

Falling Spring

– Photo from Missouri Division of Tourism

Falling Spring is one of the more unique springs in the Ozarks. As you can see, the spring emerges from a small cave about twenty feet high in the bluff. In older times, there was a millrace that took the water to the overshot wheel in the gristmill, but the millrace is no longer there…..so the water does what it did in even older times…..falls to the stream below.

The stream, still dammed, forms a beautiful millpond. Then a few hundred feet below the millpond, it sinks underground again. Quite an example of Ozarks hydrology.

There’s a Forest Service picnic area at the site, but be prepared…..it’s still very remote. From Highway 19 south of Winona, you have to wind your way down a number of gravel roads. They’re marked, though, but rough.

Favorite Ozarks Places – 6

Tags

favorite_places, Missouri, Ozarks, photography, springs

Big Spring

– photo from National Park Service

Yeah, we’ve all been to Big Spring at one time or another….it’s not what you’d call a “hidden treasure” of the Ozarks. It is probably the best-known natural feature on the Missouri side of the border.

But seriously, the fact that it’s well-visited shouldn’t stop us from pausing to appreciate what an incredible and beautiful place it is. My favorite time to be there is in the early morning, when the mist rising off the spring creates such a sense of mystery that I can easily imagine myself in an era long before recorded history, despite the concrete walkways and the campground just up the hollow. Another place where I got that feeling is Wistman’s Wood in Devon.

And even if your interest in Big Spring is more scientific than poetic, there’s plenty to make you shiver–think about 278 million gallons of water a day, water that has flowed underground for up to two weeks from as far as 45 miles away to emerge at this spot. Under your feet, all kinds of amazing things are happening.

Favorite Ozarks places – 2

Tags

favorite_places, Missouri, Ozarks, Rolla, springs

Lane Spring

I love the big dramatic springs too . . . but there is something just as special about the smaller ones. Lane Spring is south of Rolla off Highway 63, and it’s hard to beat for quiet beauty.

I had the good fortune to publish two poems about Lane Spring in Ozark Review, way back when. The first was in the Winter 1978 edition, entitled “Lane Spring Psalm” by Gene Doty, and it goes like this:

naos of jewelweed

& poison ivy

             oak branches gargoyled with vines

                         hickory & redbud

                        buttresses

             caryatids of poke & walnut

 a living clerestory

admits vibrant light

             leaves of light & shadow

            shimmer

 out of earth & rock, wet,

cold & clear among cress

white sand speckled with black snails

             this hollow the fane

            of a shy spirit

             whose naiads flow unseen:

            nourish my spirit

 a spring rising hidden

            among trees & weeds

 I stand at the threshold

seeking a way

to enter

            a jeep in the parking lot starts

            children shriek & splash

            in the cold water

the god of this spring

deflects the psalm I raise

to praise his dark clarity

his bright surface reflects my voice

            and when I wade the stream

            my ankles ache with his chant

            to the God of all springs

                        wet cold & holy

The second is a response poem entitled “On Reading ‘Lane Spring Psalm,’ by Patricia Julian Morrow, published in the Winter 1979 issue:

On a bank of impatiens and poison ivy

You have caught a site for prayer,

A sight of god. There’s a fine irony that

Donne would have spun into a fine web

To catch the bumbling heart and Voltaire

Cranky, eloquent, braided into a welting lash for it.

I had never thought the figuration for a throne

Of grace must be jasper, amber, gold,

There seemed no need for such, shall I say, gaudy,

But I, as common, looked to a clump of yellow roses,

To the failing facts of a March icicle.

Now I must look further perhaps or closer.

I remember once I walked on the road

Right past the Castalian spring, eyes on the mountain,

Never noticing that the gift of the god

Had offered itself in that low place.

What gift did he bear, do you think, he was was given

Through the bright opacity of gnarling gray olive,

Of sun-returning stone, of vivid brown water

To first sight that dark cold pure rushing?

Two lovely poems. Visit a spring when you can. The photo, by the way, is by Charlie Gill of the U.S. Forest Service.