Good News

For those of you that are not in Missouri and haven't heard, the last of the Toop's children is out of the hospital. And the first project to be completed at the Shut-Ins is the restoration of the cemetery. Here is a link to some photos of this work.

More Photos

Here is a link to more photos of the Black River. If you have a slow dial up connection like me this will take a while. Go visit someone with DSL. Lee

Link to Taum Sauk Cartoon

Tauk Sauk Cartoon

New article about the river

Here is an excellent article on the current problems in the Black River.

December 27

Pam and I returned to Lesterville from our Christmas visit to Springfield. The river at the Lodge is now milky green instead of muddy brown, but you still can not see the through the water. There was a good article in the St Louis Post today about the condition of the river. Lee

Merry Christmas from Peola Valley

We've just opened our gifts and we hope all of you had as good a Christmas as we did. We'll try to keep you up to date on all the work being done in the Black River area to restore the river to the way I know you all remember. Have a great holiday and a happy New Year.

Pam and Lee Ferber

December 22

The U S Geological Survey and the University of Missouri Rolla have posted a lot of informative photo about the reservoir failure and the flooding at the Shut-Ins. There is a link on this page to their photos.

December 21, FERC

There is a link on this page to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They are the agency that was responsible for inspecting Taum Sauk and making sure that it was safe. This link will take you to a press release about their future plans at Taum Sauk.

December 16, St Louis Post Article

This photo is from the St. Louis Post Dispatch. For those of you that have driven to the top of the reservoir you can see the lookout and the road to the top on the left. Notice that the trees were not knocked down, they are all gone. There is a scar like this all the way to the Shut-Ins. There is a link on this page to an excellent article on the whole event and a number of additional photos.

December 16, Taum Sauk Flood

Reports coming out of the Shut-Ins sound bad. The park is closed and they hope to have some of it open by next summer. Many of the buildings and all of the campgrounds were destroyed. The new Office/Store had about four feet of water in it and there was five inches of mud left inside once the water left. The wood walkway to the shut-ins was washed away. Click on the Shut-Ins Damage link to be the latest news on the park.

December 14, Reservoir Fails

I'm posting this at 3:45pm on the day that the Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir failed. The river at Black River Lodge was about a foot higher than yesterday, but we have never seen the river this color. All the silt that was washed off the mountain and from the ground at the Shut-Ins is still moving down the river. We drove up to the lower dam and the water was comming over the top of the dam, but just over, not very deep. There are a lot of downed trees floating in the Lower Reservoir. As I find out more information I will post it to this page. There are 6 TV stations broadcasting from the parking lot at Lenny's. Lesterville has never seen a day like today.