spring/summer ’19

pg. 13

SO MUCH TO LEARN: It rained hard a few days before Anne Dye Tracing the Current Keller injected dye into the Halbrook Branch of Upper Gladden Creek in the Meramec River Landscape, Part III headwaters. She estimated that it was running at about 75 gallons per minute over a low water bridge in Dent County. A half-mile downstream by quinta scott of her injection point, the stream dried out and remained dry for several miles. She recovered her packets from Welch Spring with positive results.1

Tuesday November 10, 1818: It was Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Millions of years ago the the edge of a prairie where we had described the progression of Ozarks region was a peneplain, halted. Wood was rather scarce; but landscapes in the eastern Current a relatively flat plateau, across we made shift to build a good fire. River watershed in the journal he which the rivers the Meramec, kept as he explored the Ozarks the Current, the Gasconade, Wednesday November 11, 1818: In in 1818 and 1819. He began his and others meandered. At passing two miles, we crossed a small tour in Potosi; traveled south least 320,000,000 years ago, stream running south-east, which through the Cortois and Huzzah maybe more recently, a slow uplift evidently had its source in the little valleys; crossed the West Fork of pushed up the plain. The rivers lake at our last night’s encampment. the Black River to the headwater responded by cutting deep val- Welch Spring: Halbrook The trail beyond this was often faint; streams of the Meramec; crossed leys, maintaining their meanders Branch of Upper Gladden upland savannas pockmarked by and leaving behind remnants of Creek-Meramec Headwaters in the course of eight or ten miles, we began to ascend elevations covered little lakes (sinkholes); entered the peneplain—Schoolcraft’s with pines, but of so sterile and hard the forested lands that clothe prairies—on ridges between a soil that we lost all trace of it. We the valleys of Current River watersheds. All are relatively level wound about among those desolate tributaries; and descended plains, where local relief is seldom pine ridges a mile or two, till, from through their sheer valleys to the more than 100 feet. Sinkholes one of the higher points, we descried river itself. He crossed the river litter all. Some deliver water to a river in a deep valley, having a just south of Montauk Spring. underground systems. Major dense forest of hard wood, and every Schoolcraft described the tributaries to the Current, Big indication of animal life. Overjoyed Current River landscape of 1818 in and Spring Valley creeks, which at this, we mended our pace, and, by much the same way the Missouri are also losing streams, head at the dint of great caution, led our pack- Department of Conservation barren (prairie) edge and deliver horse into it. It proved to be the river (MDC) would describe it in 2002 water to springs. In Schoolcraft’s Currents, a fine stream, with fertile when it published its Atlas of time, stubby post oaks grew on banks, and clear sparkling waters. Missouri Ecoregions and defined it fragipan, poorly drained soils on - henry rowe schoolcraft, 18182 as the Current River Hills ecoregion. the ridges. Today, we find cattle grazing on fescue pastures. The MDC named such landscapes Oak Savanna/Woodland Plains. spring/summer ’19

pg. 14 On the process of selecting a dye injection site: pg. 15 “It is based on lots of field work and lots of walking the hollows of the Ozarks. It is a combination of art and science, and an ability to understand the land and how it functions.”

The MDC described much as 250 feet. At the end River, Schoolcraft crossed narrow, the forested breaks remain intact. This is the last of a three-part The third part explores Schoolcraft’s “desolate pine of the nineteenth century, rugged ridges that dropped down Hardwoods covered the river series on our undetstanding of the Current River country, its ridges” as the Oak-Pine loggers moved in and stripped as much as 500 feet along steep floodplain, which is lined in tall Ozark National Scenic Riverways prairies, its losing tributaries, Woodland/Forest Hills, where the woodlands. Today, dense slopes, anchored by oaks, into bluffs. Huge springs, which draw in the Current River watershed and its springs. Again, Thomas the soil is cherty. Historically, a second-growth oak and or oak- the fertile Current River Valley. water from all parts of the since 1964. The first covered the Aley’s work guides us through woodland mix of oaks and pines pine forests dominate the hills. The MDC named this region the watershed, feed a steady stream establishment of the Ozark the landscape. In 1973 Aley covered the rolling hills, where Current River Oak Forest Breaks. of water to the river. 3 National Scenic Riverways and completed the Hurricane Creek the landscape rises and falls as As he approached the Current Unlike the oak/pine woodland, our early forays into understanding project, opened his Ozark its watershed. Research began Underground Laboratory at in 1912 when Thomas Jacob Protem, Missouri, and began Rodhouse measured the flow of working as a consultant on the Current above and below Big hydrogeology, caves, and the Spring and continues to this day. management of karst regions. One Between 1968 and 1973, Thomas of his first clients was the Ozark Aley conducted his study of the National Scenic Riverways, for Hurricane Creek watershed and whom he delineated the recharge delineated the extent of the areas of the springs that feed Big Spring Recharge area. The the Current River. Schoolcraft’s “desolate creek, a classic losing stream and pine ridges” a tributary of the Eleven Point River, delivers water through subterranean channels that run under the drainage divide between the Eleven Point and the Current to Big Spring, a tributary to the Current River. Aley’s conclusions focused on the interplay between land use on the surface and groundwater quality.4 Sunklands Conservation The second part discussed Area: the Doe Run applications to McHenry Hollow mine lead in the Hurricane Creek watershed and the explosion of research that followed. It Tom Aley described the focused on the efforts of the U.S. process of selecting a dye Geological Survey to map the injection site: “It is based on lots karst landscape of the Current of field work and lots of walking River watershed between 1995 the hollows of the Ozarks. It is and 2001. The project provided a a combination of art and science, geological inventory of the Ozark and an ability to understand National Scenic Riverways. the land and how it functions. The Missouri Department of Losing stream segments are often Conservation sorted out the ideal locations. They are best progression of landscapes in the when most or all of the flow of watershed, catalogued it its Atlas the stream is sinking in a very for Missouri’s Ecoregions, and localized area. This often means published maps in 2002. that you need to be there during or shortly after rainstorms. You spring/summer ’19

pg. 16 pg. 17

“No Dumping.” Montauk Spring Brook so said a sign at the sinkhole.

don’t always guess right and may springs and assessed areas that disbursed and emerged from get to a point you have selected are hazardous to the water several smaller pools, gravel bars, only to find that conditions are quality of each spring. In a second and creek beds. Walk along not suitable. contract in 1977 and 1978 he the creek that emerges from delineated the recharge areas of the spring. “You will see water “You also need dye introduction springs north of the Jacks Fork springing from very small points that will give you as much and west of the Current. In 1982 ponds, from seeps, from its useful information as possible. Aley crossed the Current and gravel bed.” If you are concerned with began tracing the sources of protecting water quality, then a springs in its eastern watershed The sources of Montauk site downstream of a source of and north of U.S. 60. By the time Spring puzzled geologists for contaminated water is routinely he and Catherine Aley published decades. It puzzled geologists more useful than a site way out in their Groundwater Study: Ozark James Maxwell and David the woods somewhere. A site National Scenic Riverways in 1987, Hoffman. In the fall of 1971 the near the potential boundary they had conducted at least one pair toured the region east of between a couple of recharge trace of every major spring that Licking for their study of Water areas is more useful than a site feeds the Current. They included Resources of the Current River and where it is pretty obvious where a series of maps delineating the speculated on suitable places 5 the water is likely to go.” recharge areas for all major springs.6 where they could inject dye the following spring. They ruled In 1972 soon after the out Monty Spring, which spills dedication of the Ozark into a stream that cuts through a Montauk National Scenic Riverways in steep-sided hollow, where beaver and Welch Springs: 1971, the National Park Service had built a dam across the stream. results: positive, but very weakly “No Dumping.” So said a sign demonstration of the role of Bean Creek embarked on a series of studies They considered a huge sinkhole, positive. Aley considered, for the at the sinkhole; so said Tom Aley. sinkholes and losing streams in the Injection Site on management of the new park, 600 feet wide northeast of first time, that the springs in the Aley concluded his Hurricane contamination of groundwater including a groundwater study Licking, which drained Current River watershed share Creek study by noting: came in 1920 when the of the Current River watershed. runoff from the surrounding recharge areas. A decade later when Mid-Continental Iron Company Aley’s earlier Hurricane Creek pastureland and could carry water he recovered contradictory weak Protection and management disposed of waste isopropyl study for the U.S. Forest Service into a subterranean system.8 results from injection sites at the of the springs and rivers of the alcohol in Davis Creek, a losing prompted the fifteen-year effort head and foot of Gladden Creek, study area requires protection stream, filled with sinkholes. The to delineate the recharge areas of April 18, 1978, Tom Aley took and management of the land east of the Current, he concluded tributary to these features. alcohol showed up in Big Spring, the major springs on the Current up the Montauk Spring puzzle in that Current River springs often It is impossible to manage which carried it to the Current River. He worked from his Ozark his study of water resources west share common recharge areas.9 the spring effectively without River, which fouled the drinking Underground Laboratory in of the Current River. He injected managing the land, which water of the City of Doniphan, Protem. His first client was the eight pounds of dye into an supplies recharge water for 30 miles downstream.10 University of Missouri-Rolla, unnamed tributary of Bean Creek. the springs. In the study area, Pigeon Creek and Montauk and in many other soluble where he worked on Round The creek meandered across the Right outside of Licking and Spring form the head of the Montauk rock lands as well, the surface Spring with James Maxwell, a Current River. The creek and the woodland plain near Licking at Spring: and the subsurface are an a half-mile north of the site of geologist with the Water river provide the only surface the rate ten gallons per minute. Cameron intimately integrated system. Aley’s Bean Creek trace, Cameron Road The surface affects the Resources Research Center water found in Montauk State He placed charcoal packets in Sinkhole Road dodges a sinkhole in the Trash subsurface and vice versa. at the university. Park. Losing sections of the both Montauk and Welch springs. Similarly, surface management woodland plain, a natural place creek‘s upper reaches contribute The dye first showed up in affects the subsurface; to inject dye. In September 1986 With his work with Maxwell water to the spring.7 Montauk on May 1. It also showed subsurface management Marian Gooding, a naturalist at finished, he began performing affects the surface. up in Welch Spring two days later. Montauk State Park who worked contract work for the Ozark Or is it Montauk Springs? Big surprise. And it showed up in with James Vandike, a geologist National Scenic Riverways on a In 1892, heavy rains and flooding an unnamed spring in Bean Creek Sinkholes and losing streams with the Department of regular basis. Between 1975 and washed gravel into the bedrock on about May 10. Only when he can speed contaminants directly Natural Resources, did just that. 1976 he delineated the recharge opening of the spring, clogged it, viewed the packets under very into the underground system and She recovered her charcoal packet areas of Alley, Round, and Pulltite but did not plug it. The spring intense light could he read the foul groundwater. The earliest in Montauk Spring two weeks later.11 spring/summer ’19

pg. 18 The spring spews from a cave at the rate of pg. 19 229 cubic feet per second and turns the river from a lazy stream into a first class float.

Welch Spring: Description of Welch Spring coming out of a cave on the Current River New Harmony, Missouri 32 boggy place, lined with the Mark Twain National Forest. Maybe 43 days of sampling fine-grained sediments rather Water carried the dye a mile and was not enough. Yes, but a than coarse gravel. a half downstream at 10 gallons wave of storms after May 12 per minute, where it sunk into the should have flushed the dye into Nevertheless, he set his gravel bed of the losing stream. the underground system. Maybe Anne Keller, a master’s downstream of Welch Spring, the that run though woodlands; packets in Welch Spring. Not She recovered her packet from the dye went to places they didn’t candidate in geology at the third largest spring in Missouri Gladden Creek, a broad losing until May 4th did dye show up Welch Spring.15 sample, such as other springs Missouri University of Science and and the second on the Current stream bordered by forests.13 at the spring and with weakly along the Current. Maybe the Technology, confirmed Gooding’s River, for a very good reason. The positive results. For 64 days after The confluence of two losing layers and layers of deep sand and trace. During a thunderstorm spring spews from a cave at the For visitors to the central the March injection Aley streams, Standing Rock Creek and gravel in the creek bed soaked in May 1999, she poured nine rate of 229 cubic feet per second Ozarks, the prairie ridges, where continued to receive weak results. Gladden Branch, forms Gladden up the dye and it never entered pounds of dye into a stream of and turns the river from a lazy cattle graze in fescue pastures, He attributed his results to his Creek, a tributary of the Current the underground system to water, spilling into the sinkhole stream into a first-class float. are places to get through on the less-than-ideal site and River. The large losing stream Cave Spring. at 20 gallons a minute. She Welch Spring’s 214-square-mile way to someplace else: Montauk speculated that because it is in maneuvers a serpentine hollow recovered her dye packet at recharge area reaches under Spring or Round Spring or the the northern-most reach of the through woodlands into the forest In 1985, Aley injected six Montauk Spring, almost eight the Ozark Plateau divide and new Echo Bluff State Park along Welch recharge area and the breaks and drains the region east pounds of dye into the head of miles from the sinkhole. into Meramec drainage area. Sinking Creek. South of Salem, Meramec River topographical of the Current. Gladden Creek just south of the Missouri, 19 crosses Missouri 32 basin, the dye might have been confluence of Standing Rock Sinkholes, 284 of them, pockmark If the New Harmony injection Keller’s focus, however, was riding the ridge that separates the diverted to other springs to the Creek and the Gladden Branch, its recharge area. When it rains, site was anything but ideal for a Welch Spring, not Montauk. The Gladden Creek watershed from north and northwest. He where water ran at 75 gallons per those sinkholes drain surface Welch Spring trace, the Gladden four additional traces she ran for water into the underground the Sinking Creek watershed, recommended further study.14 minute. He set his dye packets her thesis delineated the extent eastern tributaries to the Creek site, just north of the Dent/ in four places: Welch and Cave system. So do losing streams. Shannon County line, was. The of the Welch Spring recharge Historically, poorly drained Current River that supply water springs and Gladden Creek at area, which reaches north and to Welch and Cave Springs. spring was only 17,900 feet away. KK Road in Dent County. Finally, fragipan soils hosted post-oak The water ran at the site at 20 east of the Current and into the barrens. Welch spring draws Along the way, it cuts across Welch he set packets in Montauk Spring Spring: gallons per minute and continued losing streams that form the its water from a variety of plains in the Meramec watershed to test whether it draws water 12 Wofford to do so for all 43 days of the May Meramec headwaters. landscapes: fragipan soils that and woodlands in the Current Branch of from the east side of the river. the Upper 1982 trace. Eight gallons of dye have been converted to pasture; watershed, and finally enters the Welch Spring tested strongly Paddlers on the Current Meramec should have shown moderate or gravel-bedded losing streams Current River Forest Breaks. positive within three weeks. River put in at Akers Ferry, just It crosses the Current River at even strongly positive results at Montauk Spring tested negative. Round Spring and continues its Welch Spring. twisting way south. Tom Aley’s 1978 trace at On May 12, 1982, the Aleys Bean Creek had alerted him Above Missouri 32, the injected their dye into Gladden to the possibility that a single Meramec is a gaining stream as it Creek and set their packets in losing stream could deliver Welch and Cave springs and two water to two, maybe even three, draws water from its headwater tributaries. Below Missouri 32, its other places. The dye promptly different springs.16 sank into the sandy and gravel headwater tributaries are losing In 1999, Anne Keller studied streams. The sinking creek at New creek bed and showed up, with At 19, Jerry Vineyard Welch the New Harmony trace and Spring Harmony on 32 was not your weakly positive results, at Cave descended into Devils Well for replicated Aley’s trace without Spring. Why? the first time. Five years later, in conventional injection site. success. However, her trace in the On March 23, 1982, when Tom Wofford Branch of the Upper Aley mixed the dye for the New Meramec extended the limits of Harmony trace, he decided to use the Welch Spring recharge area. Welch more than normal. The stream— It rained heavily on the night Spring: a tributary of Dry Creek, a losing Gladden of May 4. The next day, Keller Creek stream in the Meramec Basin— dropped dye into the Wofford flowed at a mere 15 gallons per Branch of the Meramec, which minute. Aley’s dye seeped into the threads a densely treed hollow in underground system through a spring/summer ’19

pg. 20 pg. 21 The Pulltite Springs complex, Round Spring, and the Current River Springs complex all deliver water to an 11.3-mile stretch of the Current.

Pulltite Spring Complex: 1961, Vineyard—now a geologist, Barren Fork. He left enough The Pulltite Springs complex, Lower Big Creek working on his master’s thesis packets in Cave Spring to study Round Spring, and the Current at the University of Missouri— the results for three months. By River springs complex all deliver conducted the first Missouri dye day 35 he had strongly positive water to an 11.3-mile stretch of trace to a Current River spring results, but negative in the month the Current. This series of springs that used a charcoal packet to after that. However, he uncovered draws from overlapping recharge absorb dye. He was almost certain weakly positive results over areas that extend to the the well and the spring were the next five weeks, which he western limits of the Current River connected. He secured a packet in attributed to a second trace he watershed. Some of the springs in Cave Spring on the Current River made to Cave Spring. the Current River complex rise in and dropped the dye in Devils the river and are difficult to trace Well—a mile away. He waited a The Pankey Branch, a losing back to their sources. Aley used week for the dye to show up in stream, runs through Asbridge those that rise in its floodplain to the spring. Thomas Aley’s traces, Hollow, a pretty, narrow green trace the sources of the complex. made in the last decades of the hollow. Horses, a possible source twentieth century, demonstrated of groundwater contamination, The Pulltite Spring complex that Cave Spring shares graze near its head. About a mile —Pulltite, Fire Hydrant, Gravel, parts of its recharge area with from its head, a spring in its Boiling Sand, and two unidentified west bank delivers water to it. springs between Pulltite and Welch Spring. River; at Pulltite, Fire Hydrant, Downstream a young bottomland Lewis Hollow—draw water from Pulltite Spring Gravel, and Boiling springs in forest finds anchor in its alluvium. the Sunklands and the dissected Photograph by Jennifer Swab, the Pulltite complex; and at Cave, region to the west. Tom Aley (Courtesy of Welch, and Montauk springs. On July 17, 1998, Anne Keller performed four traces on the the Ozark poured five pounds of dye into the National Scenic When he collected the packets complex from different sites, in Riverways) Cave Spring spring and set her charcoal packets two weeks later, all results proved Photograph 1976, 1978, and two in 1986. by Joyce in Cave Spring. The stream negative save the weak results Hoffmaster, carried the dye a mile downstream Big Creek rises at the eastern from the Pulltite complex, which Cave Research Foundation at the rate of 75-100 gallons per edge of the Summerville Savanna surprised him. He had expected minute. It disappeared into coarse Plain outside the Current River strongly positive results for all gravel near the Bedwell Cemetery, Hills, flows northeast across the springs in the Pulltite complex. Like Gladden Creek, Sinking never to reappear. Pankey Branch dissected Current River Plain, He repeated the trace on April Creek collects water from a series ran dry beyond the losing point. and reaches its confluence with 27 and added six additional sites of losing streams and delivers it Tom Aley noted when he made the Current four miles north of to his test. He recovered positive to the Current River. Two traces his 1982 trace at Pankey Branch Welch Spring. 1978, Tom Aley injected eight July 18, with very strongly results, strongly positive, 26 years apart proved that its that the creek ran dry to within pounds of dye into the confluence positive results at all sites. only from springs in the Pulltite losing branches deliver water to a half-mile of its confluence with Aley chose two sites along the of Big Creek and Dry Bone Creek complex. Given their results Cave Spring. 17 Missouri KK in Texas County Big Barren Fork. creek to run traces. On June 16, in rough country west of the from traces at two sites along Sunklands. He left carbon packets drops more than 200 feet through Big Creek, Aley and Chaney Tom Aley delineated the in Alley Spring and the Pulltite the Current River Woodland concluded that the creek recharge area of Cave Spring 21 Spring complex. The Alley Plain and through the Current delivers water only to the years after Vineyard’s 1961 trace Spring packet proved negative. River Forest Breaks to Lower Big Pulltite complex. and demonstrated that it draws Cave Spring: Pankey Branch When Aley retrieved his packets Creek. Sycamores, bottomland water from east of the Current of the Big in the Pulltite complex on June trees, line its narrow bank. Everett When Chaney added up the River. On March 9, 1982, Aley Barren Fork, Asbridge 27, his results were negative. Chaney, Aley’s associate on the mean annual flow of each of the dropped dye in the Pankey Branch Hollow However, the packets at Lewis ONSR project, twice injected springs in the Pulltite complex of Big Barren Fork of Sinking Hollow showed very weakly dye into the creek at its crossing plus the unidentified springs Creek in Dent County. He placed positive results. He placed with KK road. On April 2,1986, he between Pulltite and Little charcoal packets in Welch Spring, additional packets in the springs set packets at multiple sampling Fields Hollow, he came up with a Cave Spring, others along the in the Pulltite complex on the stations: Round Spring and above recharge area of 223 square miles, Current south of Cave Spring, 27th and left them there until its spring branch on the Current using the formula of one square as well as two places along the spring/summer ’19

Fire Hydrant Spring emerges from a pg. 22 pg. 23 cave about three feet above the Current River. (Photograph by Scott House, Cave Research Foundation) “Suddenly, there was a roar of water...”

Pulltite Complex to Current River Complex: Round Spring Sunklands Conservation Area, Aley attributed these results On June 1, 1978, Tom Aley Sinkhole Pond to groundwater discharge from injected six pounds of dye into the springs in the hollow. He had mouth of George Hollow, which found an explanation for the was running at 40 gallons per “black holes” in the channel of the minute from a spring in the Current River and the Current hollow. He set his packets in River complex.22 Round Spring, at the mouth of Mill Hollow Spring Valley Creek at the Round Creek- For the untutored, Round Current River Spring campground and at the Spring Complex Spring should stream out from mouth of Root Hollow. The results under the natural arch of everywhere were very weakly Eminence Dolomite, the remnant mile of recharge area for every to drive through it. At the core of of river between Pulltite and positive. He set a second set of of a collapsed cave. Not so. When cubic foot of discharge. It’s a the natural area is the Sunkland, Barn Hollow Spring. The trace packets in Round Spring on June the roof of the Round Spring region that covers both the Big the collapse of a massive cavern, demonstrated that the Pulltite 15 and left them through June 26, cavern collapsed, it revealed a 24 Creek watershed and the a depression in the landscape, complex shares a portion of its with strongly positive results. 18 spring, rising in a circular basin. Sunklands Conservation Area. almost a mile long and 600 feet recharge area with Round Spring Boulders from the fallen roof wide, containing a sinkhole or a and the Current River complex, blocked the underground channel Sunklands Conservation Area series of sinkholes, some dry, some whose existence was unknown that supplies the spring, preventing Round Spring: straddles the irregular boundary filled with water. A mile away in until April 1978, when Aley “Suddenly, there was a roar of Spring Valley between the Summersville Oak divers from exploring the conduit water and the previously dry bed Creek, George the Burr Oak Basin, Tom Aley injected dye into a losing section Hollow Savanna/Woodland Plain and the 21 beyond a depth of 55 feet. of Spring Valley, by which we had performed two dye traces in one of Mill Hollow Creek. Current River Oak-Pine Woodland camped, was filled with a rushing of three sinkholes, clustered Round Spring rises in its Forest Hills. In December 1991 Tom Aley made two traces in torrent 4 to 10 feet deep and 30 to together. The first, in March circular basin and streams under the Nature Conservancy and 1976, one from Cox Cave and the 100 feet wide.” Edward Seymour 1976, yielded inconclusive the arch to its spring brook, which the Missouri Department of other from the Sunklands. He Woodruff encountered Spring results. The second, ten years carries it to Spring Valley Creek Conservation signed a deed for 20 set his packets in springs in the Valley Creek when he camped later, yielded stunning results. and the Current River. The spring the purchase of 80,819 acres from Pulltite complex and saw no by it in 1908. It’s a classic losing draws water from a 119-square-mile the Kerr-McGee Corporation Everett Chaney performed results. The dye had disappeared stream that rises on the savanna/ Spring Valley Creek rises in the recharge area and flows at the in Shannon, Carter, and Wayne the second trace on December 5, into a “black hole.” Two years woodland plain west of Summerville Plain and meanders rate of 46.9 cubic feet per second. counties. Kerr-McGee had 1986. He dropped his dye in water, later, he trekked down into Mill Summersville and loops across across the Current River watershed managed the land conservatively, which was overflowing a small Hollow, deep in the Current When Missouri set up its the hills in the Sunklands to its confluence with the Current, selectively cutting instead pond at the rate of five gallons per River Forest Breaks, where water system of state parks in the 1920s, Conservation Area. It makes a straight-line distance of about 18 of clear-cutting its timber. minute. It carried Chaney’s dye trickles over rocks to the Current Governor Arthur M. Hyde and one final large horseshoe turn at miles. It loses water to both Alley Therefore, the Nature into a sinkhole, one of three in the River at the rate of 0.1 cubic feet his fish and game commissioner, George Hollow before streaming Spring on the Jacks Fork near its Conservancy was comfortable cluster in Burr Oak Basin. He set per second. At noon on April 5, Frank Wielandy, looked to the past tall bluffs near its mouth. head and Round Spring on the

negotiating a deal for $10.1 million. his packets in 14 places, including 1978, Tom Aley injected dye into Ozarks, where land was cheap, Current River near its mouth. Monsoon-like rains at the end It planned to sell some of the land the springs in the Pulltite a losing section of the stream. the natural landscape intriguing, In April 1978, Tom Aley located of April 2017 flooded the Current to the Missouri Department Complex and Round Spring. It showed up the next morning and therefore, the interest great. an injected site on Spring Valley River landscape, including its of Conservation and retain some The dye showed up first in Fire in springs at the mouth of Mill While Big Spring, the first park, Creek west of Summersville. He 19 many losing streams. By mid-May, for its own nature preserves. Hydrant Spring. Soon after he Hollow with very strongly came into the system in 1924, injected eight pounds of dye into water still flowed in losing streams recovered positive results from positive results. It also showed a year before Hyde left office, a spring branch 50 feet north of Almost half the MDC land like Spring Valley Creek. Normally, Pulltite, Gravel, and Boiling Sand up at the mouth of Root Hollow Round Spring did not until 1932. its confluence with the creek. went into the Sunklands it would not take three weeks springs in the Pulltite complex. with very weakly positive results In 1967, the State of Missouri gave The dye disappeared into the Conservation Area, 37,440 acres to drain floodwater at George The packet he set in Round two weeks later. The trace did Round Spring, Alley Spring, and losing stream. He placed charcoal of the Kerr-McGee acquisition. Hollow. Normally, in May, young Spring showed weakly positive not show up in Round Spring. Big Spring, all state parks along packets in both Blue Spring on The MDC reserved 5,700 areas crops would be sprouting on the results. Finally, dye showed up in the Current and Jacks Fork, to the Jacks Fork and Alley Spring. within the area as a natural area, Because he suspected that the agricultural fields that line the packets in springs in the Current the National Park Service for His trace arrived about two weeks off limits to logging, motor homes, dye at Root Hollow came from creek. But the April 2017 showers River Complex, downstream of inclusion in the Ozark National later at Blue Spring, 47,500 feet wooden structures, and human surface water, he left packets in were no gentle spring rain, and Round Spring, giving him positive Scenic Riverways.23 away, and showed weakly positive occupation, though it is possible results on an 11.3-mile stretch place. They absorbed more dye. the hollow remained flooded well results. His results at Alley Spring into May. spring/summer ’19

pg. 24 pg. 25

Spring Valley Creek West of fifty isolated knobs of rhyolite, Rocky Creek, meandered across Summersville- Blue Spring lies at the center of the Ozarks them. When the knobs uplifted, (Jacks Fork) and Blue Spring National Scenic Riverways. Much the streams maintained their Alley Spring Access, like the Early Cambrian seas, courses and simply eroded canyons Jacks Fork which deposited the Lamotte and into the saddles between the knobs Bonneterre Formations between and removed the sedimentary the knobs of the St. Francois rocks clear down to rhyolite, Mountains, the Late Cambrian forming shut-ins. Or possibly, seas seeped between the igneous the streams eroded headward, knobs of the Eminence Caldera encountered a knob, found a weak and deposited the Potosi and place in the volcanic rock, and Eminence formations on the carved a narrow canyon, a shut-in, valley floors and the Gasconade through it. While Rocky Falls In his 1930 study of the and Roubidoux formations above. looks more like a waterfall than a Eminence and Cardevara The Current flows past or threads classic shut-in like Johnson’s Shut-in quadrangles, Josiah Bridge tells between the knobs: Jerktail, Coot, in Reynolds County, the creek the story of the day Alley Spring Wildcat, Williams Mountains, wore down the Eminence and stopped flowing for twelve and various unnamed knobs. It Gasconade formations between hours. It seems a large sinkhole bends to the south at Owls Buzzard and Mill mountains to were very weakly positive during had algae blooms. I mean big ones. By 2016 the pasture that had formed and plugged the Bend and flows south, touching form a unique shut-in.31 the same two-week period. They occur all up and down the surrounds the Horton Davis underground conduit with muddy the eastern edge of a series of However, the trace yielded river on both prongs. They get so sinkhole on the Summerville plain debris. When flow resumed, knobs: Mill Mountain, Thorny strongly positive results two bad in the summer that when they had turned to scrub. Trees mud flowed into the spring. It Mountain, Stegall Mountain, 29 weeks later. The dye streamed at die and float to the top, you just grow on its sides. Not so on took days for it to clear. and more unnamed knobs. a rate of 211 feet per hour over can’t fish. Huge algae blooms. November 1, 1972. a straight-line distance, or 76,000 And they were not there two years Thomas Aley tells a similar The geological maps of the Alley Spring feet between the creek and the ago. Seems like it starts in late It rained hard the day Thomas story with a different conclusion. Eminence Caldera, particularly the Alley Spring.25 July and then they bloom Aley and Everett Chaney dropped In April 1974, flow from Alley Stegall Mountain map, show and there’s just this green stuff ten pounds of fluorescein dye in Spring jumped to 2,750 cubic that pockets of Cambrian Blue Spring shares its that’s everywhere.”26 the Horton Davis sinkhole, which feet per second (cfs) after a heavy sedimentary rocks are scattered catchment or recharge area with is 30 to 40 feet deep. Theirs was rain, 1,700 cfs more than the between the knobs. The Late Alley Spring, and, while much of A National Park Service study the first attempt to define the previous peak recharge of 1,060 Cambrian seas flooded in, the Alley Spring recharge area of water quality on Jacks Fork Alley Spring recharge area. Water cfs in March 1935. Aley noted deposited the Potosi, Eminence, is forested, much of the area and Current rivers showed that drained off the surrounding that losing streams have a finite Gasconade, and Roubidoux it shares with Blue Spring has springs in general had the highest pasture into the sinkhole at the rate recharge capacity. Once exceeded, formations, and buried the knobs. been cleared for pasture. The concentrations of nitrates, and of two cubic feet per second and their surplus water flows on the The streams, be it the Current Jefferson City-Cotter formation, Alley Spring topped the list. The ponded there to a depth of 15 feet. surface. Hence, if losing streams River, the Jacks Fork, or even pockmarked with sinkholes, study concluded that springs are While Aley and Chaney recovered were incapable of delivering such dominates its catchment area. more likely to show the effects of their charcoal packets from a huge quantity of water to Alley Hydrologists suspect that land use in their watersheds than Alley Spring November 9, they Spring, it must be the sinkholes rain, washing off pastures into do the rivers they feed. Hence, figured the dye had arrived that surround Summersville. He sinkholes and underground if Alley Spring shares part of its around November 5. The packets concluded that gullies lace the channels, can carry non-point catchment with Blue Spring and showed a moderately positive sinkhole plain and carry water to Alley Spring: pollution to Blue Spring and much of that area is devoted to result. The dye had traveled the sinkholes, like the Horton Davis, Horton Davis the upper Jacks Fork. Algal pasture that has been fertilized 58,100 feet at the rate of 605 feet which form a “large capacity Sinkhole blooms follow. with nitrates, then Alley Spring an hour and confirmed that the spring system capable of rapidly will have higher levels of nitrates Summerville Plain forms the transporting subsurface waters.”30 Jack Toll, speaking to oral than other springs.27 recharge area for Alley Spring. 28 historians with the U.S. Geological South of the confluence of Survey in 1993, noted, “We never the Current and Jacks Forks rivers, the Eminence Caldera, spring/summer ’19

pg. 26 pg. 27

The Osage called it the “Spring of the Summer Sky,” for its deep blue color...

strongly positive results at Mill a bluff of Eminence Dolomite, generate power. Four years later The 1962 McIntire-Stennis that the hydrology of the Spring, 4.5 miles away and looks so still, but its spring brook hydraulic engineer Henry Claus Act funded the Watershed Hurricane Creek watershed was at Big Spring 12.4 miles away, rushes 90 million gallons of Beckman issued a report that Barometer Study within the U.S. too complex to allow lead mining straight-line travel. They water a day a quarter mile to concluded that Welch, Blue, and Forest Service. Thomas Aley’s to go forward. In the following Rocky Falls Shut-in concluded that Big Spring and the Current River. Big springs deliver enough water Hurricane Creek Barometer years the USX proposal set off Mill Creek Spring share a to the Current to maintain a study provided a template for the an explosion of research into the recharge area.32 Blue Spring draws its uniform flow. He determined that study and management of karst landscape of the Ozark National water from Logan Creek, a losing given good dam sites, south of its landscapes. Aley began his work Scenic Riverways. The following March 19, tributary of the Black River. Once confluence with the Jacks Fork, on the karst landscape of the Chaney injected dye into a losing water disappears into the sinks of the Current could be harnessed Current River four years later. Between 1995 and 2001 section of Upper Sycamore Creek the creek, it must pass under the for waterpower.33 After he completed the study in geologists mapped the karst north of Winona. He placed divide between the Black River 1975, Aley went on to trace the landscape of the Current River packets in Mill Creek, Big, Plum and Current River watersheds. It In 1924 Missouri made Big recharge areas of the major Hills. The project provided a Springs, and Mill Creek upstream discharges through Blue Spring Spring its first state park. Twenty springs along the Current River, geologic inventory of Ozark of Mill Creek Spring. For the at an annual flow of 140 cubic years later, Beckman and geologist a study he and Catherine Aley National Scenic Riverways, a first week, his results proved feet per second. Using the rule of Norman Shreve Hinchey completed in 1987 for the geology-based park. In 1998, negative. He continued testing. thumb of one mile to one cubic published Large Springs of National Park Service. geologists mapped out land use When he recovered packets from foot of discharge gives the spring Missouri, a guide to state parks in Current River Hills: what is Plum Spring in the Peck Mill Spring, 12.4 miles away, a 140-square-mile recharge area. centered around springs, directed When, in 1983, USX, formerly forested, what is open, what is Ranch Conservation Area draws and Big Spring, 19.4 miles away, Divers have probed its depth to to tourists, scientists, educators, U.S. Steel Corp, and Amax cultivated, and what is urban. its water from Upper Sycamore three week later, his results were 256 feet. and residents who draw their Exploration applied to the U.S. Collaborators with the MDC,

Creek north of Winona. The moderately positive. His results water from springs. They provided Forest Service for permission to the University of Missouri Tom Aley started work on spring overflows into Mill Creek, from Plum Spring, 7.7 miles from readers with an understanding of explore for lead deposits in the Department of Forestry, the U.S. the Hurricane Creek watershed, where water falls into the Upper Sycamore Creek, were the underground drainage systems Big Spring recharge area, the Geological Survey, the National expecting its losing sections to 34 underground system again and very weakly positive. that feed water to the springs. Aleys noted in their 1987 study Park Service, and Nature deliver water to Greer Spring, shows up in Mill Spring outside When Aley and Chaney a tributary of the Eleven Point the refuge. Upper Sycamore also examined the flow records of River. It didn’t. He started looking delivers water to Mill Spring, and Mill Creek Spring, they learned for the “missing water.” When Upper Sycamore, Plum Spring, that on November 20, 1942, flow he conducted his Blowing Spring and Mill Creek Spring all deliver at the spring dropped to zero trace in the bed of Hurricane water to Big Spring. Two traces when Big Spring was flowing at Creek in 1968, the “missing water” Mill and Big established this complex scenario. 594 cubic feet per second. When spilled into the subterranean Springs: Plum Spring-Peck On August 1, 1984, Tom Aley they received the results of the system, crossed under the Ranch 1985 trace, they concluded that drainage divide between the Conservation and Everett Chaney cleared Area away a beaver dam that plugged Big Spring is pirating water from Eleven Point and the Current a culvert on Mill Creek in the its shared recharge area with rivers, and emerged from Big Peck Ranch refuge and increased Mill Creek Spring. That a small Spring. Of the 34 traces Aley ran its flow from 5 to 55 gallons per amount of dye showed up in Plum during the Ozark National Scenic minute. Next, they poured in Creek in 1985 only adds to the River project, 13 wound up in six pounds of dye and set their complexity of the underground Big Spring, two in Greer Spring. packets in Pike, House, and drainage system of the Big Spring Missouri’s interest in Big Mill creeks a well as Mill and recharge area. Spring started with Thomas Jacob Big Springs. About a half-mile The Osage called it the Rodhouse’s 1912 study of the flow upstream of their injection site, “Spring of the Summer Sky,” for of the Current River above and Plum Spring supplied the surface its deep blue color, a product of below the spring, which proved it water for the creek at the rate of its depth and the load of dissolved a tributary of the river. In 1923, 1.5 cubic feet per second. Aley and limestone and dolomite carried the state ordered a survey of water Channey had no results by August through its underground channels. resources that might be used to 6, but by the 22nd they had The spring, emerging from under spring/summer ’19

pg. 28 pg. 29

ENDNOTES

1 Anne Elizabeth Keller, “Hydrologic 10 Thomas Aley, “Predictive Hydrologic and John G. Schumacher, Geohydrologic Blue Spring and Dye Trace Study of Welch Spring, Model for Evaluating the Effects of Investigations and Landscape Missouri,” A Master’s Thesis in Land Use and Management on the Characteristics of Areas Contributing Geology and Geophysics, University Quantity and Quality of Water from Water to Springs, the Current River, of Missouri-Rolla, 2000, 72. Ozark Springs,” Quarterly Journal of the and Jacks Fork, Ozark National Scenic Missouri Speleological Survey (1978), Riverways, Missouri (U.S. Geological 2 Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Scenes and 141–53; Bridge, Geology of the Eminence Survey, Scientific Investigations Report Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Region and Cardareva Quadrangles, 40. 2009-5138), 6, 42, 50. of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 11 Missouri Department of Natural 24 Aley and Aley, 3-27, 4-24. Grambo & Co., 1853), 56, 223. Resources, GeoSTRAT, Karst, Missouri Dye Traces Paths, A KMZ file that 25 Aley and Aley, 4-14-18. 3 Josiah Bridges, Geology of the works with Google Earth to locate the Eminence and Cardareva Quadrangles sources of springs through dye 26 Robert B. Jacobson and Alexander T. (Rolla: Missouri Bureau of Geology and traces, Vandike, 1987. Primm, Historical Land-Use Changes and Mines, 1930), 53–54; Charles G. Spencer, Potential Effects on Stream Disturbance Roadside Geology of Missouri (Missoula, 12 Keller, “Hydrologic and Dye Trace in the Ozark Plateaus, Missouri (U.S. Mont.: Mountain Press Publishing Study of Welch Spring, Missouri,” 73-6, Geological Survery Water-Supply Paper, Company, 2011), 140–41; Timothy A. Nigh 1 26-7; Missouri Department of Natural 2484, 1993), 56. and Walter A. Schroeder, Atlas of Resources, GeoSTRAT, Karst, Missouri Missouri Ecoregions (Jefferson City: Dye Traces Paths, Keller, 1999. 27 David L. Vana-Miller, Water Missouri Department of Conservation, Resources Foundation Report, Ozark 2002), 127–28, 160–65, 168–69, 172–73. 13 Nigh and Schroeder, Atlas of National Scenic Riverways (Fort Collins, Missouri Ecoregions, 108, 165. Colo.: National Park Service, Water 4 Kenneth Chilman, David Foster, and Resources Division, April 2007), 36. Thomas Aley, “River Management at 14 Aley and Aley, 4-33-5. Ozark National Scenic Riverways,” 28 Aley and Aley, 4-14-18. Big Spring in William Lee Halverson and Gary E. 15 Keller, “Hydrologic and Dye Trace Boil Davis, eds., Science and Ecosystem Study of Welch Spring, Missouri,” 76, 29 Bridge, Geology of the Eminence and Management in National Parks 79, 87. Cardareva Quadrangles, 41. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996), 303–35. 16 Aley and Aley, 3-35, 3-49-50, 4-33-4. 30 Aley and Aley, 4-14-18.

5 Email, Tom Aley, April 7, 2017. 17 Aley and Aley, 3-30, 3-35; Keller, 31 Thomas R. Beveridge, Geological “Hydrologic and Dye Trace Study of Wonders and Curiosities of Missouri 6 Email, Tom Aley, June 6, 2017. Welch Spring, Missouri,” 79, 87. (Rolla: Missouri Department of Natural Resources, 1990), 39; R. W. Harriso, 7 Thomas Aley and Catherine Aley, 18 Aley and Aley, 3-56-60, 4-27. R. C. Orndorff, and D. J. Weary, Groundwater Study, Ozark National Geology of the Stegall Mountain 7.5 Scenic Riverways, Vol. 1, Text, Prepared 19 Tom Ulenbrock, “Ozarks Tract Sold quadrangle, Shannon and Carter for the National Park Service under to Conservationists,” St. Louis Counties, South-Central Missouri (U.S. Contract 6000-4-0083, Protem, Post-Dispatch, December 19, 1991, 01A; Geological Survey, Geological Missouri: Ozark Underground “Conservation Areas Near Current Investigations Series, 2002); Ozark Trails Laboratory, 1987, 4–37; Don E. Miller and River Get New Names,” St. Louis Association, Current River Section, James E. Vandike, Groundwater Post-Dispatch, December 21, 1994, 5. http://www.ozarktrail.com/current- Serve mapped the vegetative This article would not have and Joyce Hoffmaster of the Resources of Missouri (Rolla: Missouri river-2/. communities in the Current River been possible without the help Cave Research Foundation. Department of Natural Resources, 20 Aley and Aley, 3-34, 3-60, 4-27-30. Hills, which provided the model of Thomas Aley with the Ozark 1997), 71. 32 Aley and Aley, 4-6-7, 3-39-41, 3-46-7. Finally, geologists are a 21 Aley and Aley, 3-60-2. for mapping the rest of the state. Underground Laboratory, who 8 33 generous lot. Jerry Vineyard was James C. Maxwell, Water Resources of Henry Claus Beckman, Water The work culminated in the answered any questions I asked; the Current River Basin Missouri (Rolla: 22 Aley and Aley, 3-26, 4-20-1. Resources of Missouri, 1857–1926 (Rolla: 2002 publication of the Atlas of Dena Mattesen with the Ozark no exception. After I started Water Resources Research Center, Missouri Bureau of Geology and Mines, 23 Missouri Ecosystems. In 2009 National Scenic River, who researching and writing this series, University of Missouri, 1972), 5-1-3. Jerry D. Vineyard and Gerald L. Feder, 1927), 307, 343, 348. Jerry answered my questions and Springs of Missouri (Jefferson City: geologists turned to Thomas arranged for Jennifer Swab’s 9 Aley and Aley, 3-26-7, 4-33-4; David Missouri Geological Survey and Water 34 Henry Claus Beckman and Norman and Catherine Aley’s 1987 photographs of Pulltite Spring; allowed me to use the graphic Weary, Geological Map of the Montauk Resources, 1982), 85–86; Steve Kohler Shreve Hinchey, The Large Springs Groundwater Study of the Ozark Mike Gossett of the Ozark of Devils Well from his 1982 book Quadrangle, Dent, Texas, and Shannon and Oliver A. Schuchard, Two Ozark of Missouri (Rolla: Missouri Geological Springs of Missouri, written Counties, Missouri (U.S. Geological Rivers (Columbia: University of Missouri Survey and Water Resources, 1944), National Scenic Riverways National Scenic River, who Survey, 2015). Press, 1996), 65; Susan Flader, Exploring 24–36, 54. to investigate the geohydrologic provided me with copies of Aley’s with Gerald L. Feder. This article Missouri’s Legacy: State Parks and and landscape characteristics Groundwater Study of the Ozark is dedicated to his memory. Historic Sites (Columbia: University of of the recharge areas of major ; Missouri Press, 1992), 5; Art Homer, The National Scenic Riverways Drownt Boy: An Ozark Tale (Columbia: springs that feed the Current and photographers Scott House University of Missouri Press, 1994), 36; and Jacks Fork. Douglas N. Mugel, Joseph M. Richards,