Jul 11, 2010
Meramec Lake
By Timothy R. Butler | Posted at 23:51:31
A facinating look into the ill-fated plan to convert the Meramec River basin into a lake:
In the 1960's-1970’s, 31 dams of varying sizes were planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the Meramec River Basin. The largest of these, Meramec Dam, was to impound 42 miles of the Meramec River, 9 miles of the Courtois Creek, and 12 miles of the Huzzah Creek to form Meramec Park Lake. This 180 foot tall structure was to consist of earth fill and impound a 23,000 acre lake, or about 40% the size of the Lake of The Ozarks (U.S. EPA, 2000). It would have flooded the upstream portion of present day Meramec State Park near Sullivan to Onondaga Cave near Leasburg, MO.
Damming in a Karst landscape has always been a joke. That never seemed to stop politicians with money to wasted.
I can remember lots of heated debate about that well after the vote. Lester Dill mentioned in the article also owned Maremec Caverns as well. If that would have gone through, Sullivan would look completely different than it does today.
Ed, we have a lot of dammed up lakes in Missouri, despite the karst topography that characterizes the Ozark region. Still…
Christopher, it would be quite the tourist trap now, wouldn't it? I wonder if that would be a good thing or not…