Tourism

A family from Columbia that is staying at the Sunset Ridge Cabin stopped by the pottery today. The reason its noteworthy is because they said it was their first time in Lesterville, for the last five years they had gone to Eminence on the Current River. All the news about the Black River is what attracted them to give our area a try. Now they probably did not rent a canoe, but they did stay for a number a days. And they thought the river was beautiful.

There is a story that is related about "disaster tourism" in Butte, MT.

It got to 84 degrees this afternoon in the Peola Valley. Felt like summer.

Helen

Any of you that visited the pottery during the 1990s will remember Helen. I got a call last night that she had fallen last Friday and broke her hip. She will be in rehab for at least six weeks. It would be nice if all you BRLers sent her a card. Make sure you put what week you come down.

Helen Emert
2463 Hwy C
Bourbon MO
65441

New Photos

DNR has posted three pages of photos from earlier this month. Many of the photos were taken after we had a big rain, so some of the shots are pretty dramatic. We had a half inch of rain in last nights storm, not enough to change the river, but enough to make the grass grow.

Taum Sauk Future

Don't know why this site is so much trouble to link to, but if you checked this post Thursday morning you probably didn't get to far. So here is a work around. Go to the follow page and click on Project Correspondence (elibrary). For those of you that have followed this event I think you would enjoy reading the letter from the Eastern Ozark Audubon Society. Just click on the FERC Generated pdf link on the right side of the FERC page. For full disclosure the writers of this letter are old friends and customers of Peola Valley Pottery.

Quote that will stick with me.

"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy." Steve Jobs

Water Quality

DNR has put up a new page with links about the water quality of the Black River. There are a lot of photos, including four 3-D photos of the Upper Reservoir. You need those old red/blue 3-D glasses to look at these photos. I know I've got a set around the house, but finding them will be a treasure hunt.

Someone will be the 3000th person to visit this site sometime today. Thanks for your continued interest in my postings.

Another Story

The Kansas City Star finally sent a reporter down the day of the last public meeting, March 16. I think since it was their first visit, the story is a little dark, but it is a good overview. I stopped at Wilderness and BRL yesterday to give them a copy of Ozarks Magazine, which had the article about the pottery. Each lodge is mentioned more that once in the article. Anyway, Wilderness is busy fixing up the grounds and cabins. New sheets, towels, bed spreads, ect. And they have rented the cabin known as "The Trapper Shack" to Mactec, the contractor at the Shut-Ins, for three months. At BRL, Gil and Linda were worried with the April 1 deadline for reservations, about how many people might cancel. I told them that I was not worried, especially about the BRL gang, because I had not heard from anyone that was not comming back. I helped Linda with her new computer. She wanted to get all your addresses on mailing labels and was having trouble with the program and printer. I think I worked it out and it was fun to see how many names I recognized of the first sheet.

The sun is shinning in Peola Valley, it's going to be a great day.

Black River Photos

Here is a link to a BRLer's web site with some photos from March 18.

UFO's

In all the research I've done for this blog in the last three months this has to top them all. It was from a UFO web site.

Some persons suggest that UFOs are prevalent in southeast

Missouri because they are based here! Remember the diver's

search into Clearwater Lake in 1973? The Dennis Hovis told me

that an airlines pilot saw three lights rise out of the man-made

reservoir atop Taum Sauk Mountain near Ironton.

So maybe the final report about the reservoir breach is it was caused by a UFO!

Ads and Meetings

First a river report, Pam and I got back to Lesterville around 4pm yesterday and the river at the lodge was back to the blue/green color. It does appear clear if the water is less that a foot deep.

Did any of you see the Ameren (ExperienceBlackRiver.com) ads in the Sunday papers? I saw the one in the Springfield News-Leader. I appreciate the effort, but I'm not sure how many eyeballs it attracted. The ExperienceBlackRiver web site is going to be expanded with additional information and I think that might help more that the ads. If any of you saw the ad in papers other than St Louis or KC please leave a comment and let me know where it was published. Stay Tuned.

Finally, the state has announced a series of meetings (open houses) about the plans for the Shut-Ins. There is going to be one in St. Louis. April 5 -- 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at St. Louis County Library, Oak Bend Branch, 842 S. Holmes Ave. (north of Big Bend). So I think it would be great if some of my loyal readers put on their Lodge shirts and head for this event and let the state people know what you think about the whole event.

Two Good Stories, More on Monday

It's Sunday morning in Springfield and I'm moving slow after a weekend of replanting a 3000 sq ft front lawn at my son's home. But the weather cooperated and it looks like a great spring week ahead of us. I've got a lot to post tomorrow but here are two good articles from the Columbia newspaper.

Recovery Driven by Cooperation

Disaster Gives Way to Discovery

Take a Break

It was 17 degrees in Peola Valley this morning. The daffodils really look sad.

Pam and I are headed to Springfield early Thursday for a few days of house work at our son's place. So don't expect any new posts until next Monday. So let's all take a break.

It is my understanding that the newspaper ads for the Lesterville/Black River area are to start this weekend. So I know they will be in the K.C. and St. Lo. papers, but if you are anywhere else and see an ad in your paper, click the comment button or send me an email and let me know how wide spread the ads are. Ameren is paying for this program.

Finally, if you have stayed at Wilderness Lodge in recent years, you'll be happy to know that we saw the new owners hauling a lot of the old furniture away yesterday. So I would assume that when you return the cabins will be a lot fresher than they have been in the past.

Upper Reservoir

Here is a news release about the work that will be done to the Upper Reservoir.

On another topic, I've heard that the Ozarks Magazine is available at Borders in St Louis. Enjoy!

Odds and Ends

First upcoming meetings
April 3 at the Lesterville School - Meeting to discuss restoration of East Fork and future plans for the Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park.
April 18 at the Lesterville School - Regular monthly update on progress at the park and on the river.
April 21 at Farmington (I'll post location when I know it) - Quartly meeting of the Commissioners of the Missouri State Park Advisory Board.

We had a little over an inch of rain last night. The river has not come up any as of this morning. I've had a number of emails asking for a river report. This is not easy. First, the river has been high for a week, its just low enough to see the rocks from the new bridge. Second, although every good rain is going to help clean the river, there is still a lot of clay up in the East Fork and the Lower Reservoir. So each rain also brings more of that material down. It's my gut feeling that each of you are going to play a role in cleaning up the river. When we get a hundred feet out in the river walking around and disturbing the clay that is deposited in the gravel that should help get it moving south. I don't think that being in the river this summer is going to be an unpleasant experience, but I don't think it will be as clear as you remember. I am going to ask that my loyal readers write about their experiece in the river after they come down and I will post these observations for all to read.

U. S. Supreme Court

Just found out that when the Taum Sauk plant was built it involved a U. S. Supreme Court case. This probably won't interest most of you, but I keep looking for links to this event.

Shut-Ins Plans

The Director of DNR stated at last weeks meeting that it was the departments goal to have the Shut-Ins Park open to the public by Memorial weekend. There will be no camping and no one will be allowed to get in the East Fork at the shut-ins during the upcoming summer season. There will be an auto tour set up and possibly a self guiding trail through the boulder field left by the water flow. The trail to the shut-ins should be open and they hope to have some sort of picnic area available. The park office and park store will also be open by late May. One problem that will probably not be solved is there is no drinking water or flush toilets at the park now. If possible the Ozark Trail will also be reopened this summer.

River Restoration

DNR is planning on changing the course of the East Fork at the north end of the Shut-Ins Park. Prior to the Taum Sauk breach the river flowed south from the bridge on Highway N to the start of the shut-ins in an almost straight line. The water from the breach carved out a new channel and deposited a large amount of boulders in the old channel. DNR wants to restore the river to a more natural "S" pattern, with small areas of ripples to slow the flow of the water. This should improve the appearance of the river and reduce sand and gravel movement. They expect the work to take from July to December of this year. A public meeting to discuss this plan will be held on April 3 at the Lesterville School.

New Photos

Ameren has posted new photos for the work at the Shut-Ins. At the meeting last Thursday the district superintendent of state parks stated that wild flowers are coming up in the Fen area that was carefully cleaned of silt and that the native grasses that were seeded are starting to come up.

The new owners of Riversedge Campground have started an aggressive grounds cleanup. This has nothing to do with the Taum Sauk event, just a new owner with a new attitude. We welcome them to the Peola Road family.

Letter to the Editor

In todays St Louis Post was a letter to the editor by Kelly Barton. I've known Kelly from when we moved to Lesterville in 1983. Kelly is now a member of the Lesterville school board and she is the office manager for my denist. Her mother was the manager of Wilderness Lodge in the late 80s. I share Kelly's thoughts on this subject.

Clay in the Lower Reservoir

Ameren has taken core samples from various points in the Lower Reservoir and has found from one foot to four feet of clay deposited on the bottom of the reservoir. They are applying for permission to lower the level of the lake and remove this clay. They think that this work would take about 12 weeks to complete. So the question is do they start as soon as possible, wait until the dry season starts in late May, or wait until Fall after the tourist season. At the meeting on Thusday night a show of hands from the crowd showed we were pretty evenly split between now and Fall. I was in the Fall camp. I don't know what type of equipment they would use to remove the clay and I don't understand what they would do with the water that normally flows into the Lower Reservoir from the Shut-Ins, but they did say that there are going to be days that the river below Lesterville will look terrible. I'm still waiting to see how much last weeks flood helped clean the river at the Lodge. Stay Tuned.

Ozarks Magazine

There is an article in the April 2006 edition of Ozarks Magazine about the Peola Valley Pottery. The article was written by Stacy Lonati Ross from an interview she conducted last summer. For you Black River Lodgers, Stacy is the daughter-in-law of Jim and Sally Ross from the first week in August. Jim and Sally have been customers and friends of Peola Valley Pottery since the first season we opened, 1984. The article has a photo of Lee with Bob Stith. Bob spends his summers at the lodge finding people that have not been to the pottery and bringing them down in his van for their first visit. Stacy also contacted us after the December 14 event with Taum Sauk and added a few paragraphs to the article about the flood. I don't know how many places carry this magazine, our son bought a copy at Border's in Springfield. I hope to get some copies to sell in the store this summer.

Hummers/Meeting

The hummingbirds are at Memphis, four weeks till they show up here in the valley. The next meeting with DNR and Ameren is tonight at 7pm. So hope to have a lot of news for you tomorrow.

Upper Reservoir

Ameren has applied for permission to stabilize the breach in the upper reservoir. Since the public will never be allowed up there again I hope someone will provide some aerial photos of the work once it is completed. Here are some quotes from the letter that FERC sent to Ameren about the work.

Drainage design is necessary if the shaft is to be sealed. Your consultant should
ensure that grading in the reservoir bottom and the proposed drainage ditch are
adequately designed to handle runoff. Culverts should also be properly sized.

We recommend that you establish new permanent survey control monuments, in
areas that will not be impacted by the construction activities.

For safety reasons, we recommend that the membrane liner be removed from the
edges of the north and south ends of the breach back beyond the distance of the
slope layback before the slope layback begins.

The parapet walls in both the north and south directions away from the breach
beyond the distance of the slope layback should be removed before slope layback
can begin. The work schedule should be modified to start this work before
proceeding with the actual slope layback.

So it sounds like a lot of heavy construction and the shape of the breach will change a lot from the photos that were published in December.

Cool Map

Anyone that has ever been in my wheel room knows that I love maps. I just found a cool map of the flood area at the Shut-Ins. This map was made with a special plane that was equipped with LIDAR. This is a system that uses laser light instead of radar to make a map. If you don't have a high speed internet this will take a while to download.

River report - Yesterday afternoon the water was up to the third step from the beach at the lodge, so there was no beach showing at all, so maybe this will get most of the silt on its way to Clearwater Lake.

The sale of Wilderness Lodge is going to be completed tomorrow.

Got a comment on this link. It is a large file, 5+MBs so if you have a dial up, click on the link and go get a cup of coffee. It may take a while to load.

Another Long Night

We spent another long night because of storms, but this one was because of our son and daughter-in-law. They live just south of Springfield and spent an hour in the bathroom during the strong storm that hit Springfield around 10pm last night. They are both fine and think no big damage to their home, but without power, so we'll see what daylight inspection brings. Lesterville had another half inch of rain around 3am so river should remain high.

Noisy Night

A storm that past 5 miles south of Peola Valley at 8pm last night put down a tornado east of the lead smelter at Glover and it sounds like that same storm was on the ground all the way into Illinois. We had thunder all night and inch and a half of rain. So we are flooded in again and more rain is in the forcast for the next 24 hours. So we may be lucky if we get out of here by Tuesday. But the more water we get coming down the river, the cleaner it is going to be by summer.

Afternoon Info - I haven't been out but just heard that the water is over the Mill Creek Bridge on Hyatt's Creek. If that is the case then this is a real flood and we could get more rain tonight.

This Weeks Meeting

The following is from a press release about the meeting on March 16.

An update will be given by Ameren UE on the lower reservoir, followed by the stream restoration plan for the portion of the East Fork of the Black River that runs through Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park. Stabilization on the upper reaches of the river has to take place first to ensure that the continued work doesn't result in further sediment reaching the Black River. There also will be an update on water quality issues in the Black River. Following the presentations, there will be time to visit with individuals from the Department of Natural Resources and other partners in the restoration efforts.

I hope by Thursday that the river is back down to normal levels so we can see if the high water cleared out some of the silt.

Friday River Report

Wednesday night the East Fork Gauge was at 3 feet with a flow of 40 cubic feet per second. This morning the gauge is reading 5 feet with 780 cubic feet of water each second. I'll go to the bridge at BRL at 9:30 when the mail is delivered and give you an update.

10am observation - The river is up to the bottom step on the stairs leading to the beach at BRL. So this is a great flood, high enough to start clearing out the river, but not so high that it will cause any damage. We are forcast to have some more rain this weekend, but doesn't sound like a lot of accumulation, so it may keep the river up a little longer.

Good Rain, Finally

We have had almost 2" here at Peola Valley and the river gauge at town has had 1.4" in the last 12 hours. The East Fork is only up a quarter inch as of 8am. It is forcast to rain most of the morning and then again through the weekend so maybe this will be the first high water. It has been so dry that right now I'm sure most of the water is just soaking in, not headed for the stream and the river.

Noon update - We are now at two and a half inches of rain. The river has not come up much, but probably will tomorrow.

Evening update - Total for today was 3", Peola Creek is now so high that I would only cross it in an emergency. Hope this starts to clean out the main river.

Dr. Iron

Doug has been asked to design a fountain for the National Ormanental Metal Museum in Memphis. I'll post a photo of the finished fountain when it is available, but for now here is Doug working on a clay model of the top of his head. This model will be cast in bronze and be part of the final design.

Come On Down!

We had a great visit with Jane, Mike and Tom Kilo (3rd week of August at BRL) yesterday. It was a nice day and they were all off so decided to come down and spend some time walking the beach. We told them everything we know about the river and they told us everything they knew about getting Cardinal tickets. The Kilo's have alway gone to opening day, but not this year because of the ticket situation. So all you frustrated Cardinal fans I have a suggestion. Spend a weekend in Springfield and watch the Springfield Cardinals. They have a great stadium and the price of a ticket is real cheap.

July 4 Will Be a Big Day

As many of you know, a work of art that Doug Hendrickson and I made in 1974, will go on permanent display at the Smithsonian this summer. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Luce Foundation Center for American Art will be the first visible art storage and study center in Washington. The new Luce Foundation Center will feature 3,500 objects in 64 secured glass cases which will quadruple the number of artworks from the permanent collection on public view. The center will feature paintings densely hung on screens, sculptures, crafts and folk art objects arranged on shelves, and miniatures and medals in drawers that open. Large-scale sculptures will be installed on the first floor of the center. Interactive computer kiosks and individual hand-held computers will provide the public with information on every object in the center, including a discussion of each artwork, artist biographies, audio interviews, video clips and still images.

I received a mailing today and went to this site to see a little more about the work that is going on to get ready for July 4.

Bin Wall

The photos that Ameren posted recently included two photos of a bin wall. I had an email asking what was a "bin wall" This is a dam like structure, composed of a series of steel bins (boxes) that are filled with rocks. This bin wall is located about a mile south of the shut-ins and just before the intake canal that goes to the Taum Sauk generators. The purpose of the bin wall is to keep gravel and rocks from washing into the lower reservoir. Needless to say, a lot of gravel, rocks and trees washed up against the bin wall December 14 and these photos are of work that cleaned out the area around the bin wall.

Down By The River

Here is a site that ought to "fling a craving" on you Black River Lodgers.

National Forest Land

Whether you are for or against the proposed sale of National Forest Land you should find this article interesting.

82/82

March 5 is 82 days from December 14 and it is also 82 days until May 26, so we are half way from the breach to Memorial Day weekend. When I think about all that has been accomplished in the past 82 days I feel pretty good that most things will be ready for the summer season. I did receive an email asking that I update you all more frequently about the condition of the river. First, if you will click on the River Gauge Data link on the right, the first graph is river flow and you will see it is way down. We just have not had much rain this winter. The last graph is water clarity, turbidy, and we want to see that near 1. Now this gauge is on the East Fork so by the time the water gets to the lodge it has be diluted by the West and Middle Forks, so the main river is much clearer than the East Fork. So if we get some good spring rains a lot of the cloudy water should be headed south towards Clearwater Lake.

More Info on Ameren

The St Louis Post had another article about possible plans for the Taum Sauk area.

Taum Sauk Repair or Rebuild

For those of you that are not in St Louis here is a link to an article in Friday's Post about the first report of the expert recommendations about the Upper Reservoir.

The Hummingbirds Are Back

Not in Lesterville! The first two sightings of ruby-throated hummingbirds were yesterday in Louisiana and Texas. This is the latest they have shown up it the ten years that hummingbirds.net has kept track. If you go back to this site every few days you can follow the birds progress north. They usually show up in Lesterville around April 15.

The past two years we have gone through 250 pounds of sugar each summer here at the pottery. I'll be very interested to see what this year brings, because I have worried that hurricane Rita in Texas and Stan in Mexico both hit about the time the birds would have been in those regions on their trip south.

So after you come back to the pottery to replace that favorite coffee cup that you broke this winter spend a few moments watching the hummers and think about their trip to Peola Valley.

Tile Decoration Workshop

Pam and Lee will be conducting a Tile Decoration Workshop on April 8 in Cape Girardeau. This link will give you more information.

Ironton Wants to Know

The Arcadia Valley Chamber of Commerce is hosting a meeting to discuss theTaum Sauk/Shut-Ins event on Tuesday, March 7 at 7pm in the Arcadia Valley High School cafeteria. The speakers will be Mike Menne, VP of Enviromental Health for Ameren, Jackson Bostic, Ombudsman for the DNR and a DNR water quality representative.

3 Signs of Spring

First, the Phoebe's are back. These little birds mate for life and return to the same nest each year to raise their family. Walking across the yard yesterday I heard the familiar "Pheee-Bee" call coming from the top of a tree.

Second, we saw hundreds, maybe thousands, of geese flying north yesterday. One late afternoon
"V" seemed to extend half way across the sky.

Finally, about 2pm, Pam and I went to the Post Office and we saw two men in lawn chairs, fishing from the beach across from Riveredge. The temperature was 76 degrees. Sure felt like spring!