Meramec River
|
Canoers enjoy a float trip on the Meramec below Leasburg |
The
Meramec River is the longest free-flowing waterway in
Missouri Maries,
Gasconade,
Iron,
Washington,
Reynolds,
St. Francois,
Ste. Genevieve, and
Texas -- totaling approximately 10,300 square kilometers (3,980 square miles). Year-round navigability begins at the
confluence of Dry Fork and the
Maramec Spring branch just south of
St. James, and continues until the river enters the Mississippi at Arnold, Missouri.
The first European explorer was
French Jesuit priest Jacques Gravier, who traveled the river in
1699-
1700, and reports that the name means 'the river of ugly fishes' or '
ugly water' in
Algonquin. Early variant spellings of the name were Mearamigoua, Maramig, Mirameg, Meramecsipy, Merramec, Merrimac, Mearmeig, and Maramecquisipi. The river early on became an important industrial shipping route, with
lead,
iron, and
timber being sent downstream by
flatboat and shallow-
draft steamboat. The river has a complicated history, being the site of many tragedies, such as an
1894 lynching, numerous deadly and destructive floods, and the site of recent crimes and murders at several Missouri State Parks. The river is also the site of many vacationer
canoe rentals and
ferry boat excursions. Today, the river is used commercially by tourboats and sand and gravel mining
barges.
Numerous
trails travel along the river and up over the bluffs giving the hiker a glimpse of
ducks,
herons,
beavers and other species of wildlife that may be seen along the river.
The river was listed at one time as one of the most
polluted rivers in Missouri. Local and state government along the river have taken tremendous steps in cleaning it up. Today the river is one of the most diverse waters in Missouri. The river is plentiful in; black
crappie,
channel catfish,
flathead catfish,
largemouth bass,
paddlefish,
rainbow trout,
rock bass,
smallmouth bass,
walleye, white
crappie, and some of the richest
mussel beds in the state. The endangered Ozark
Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) also lives in the river.
Occasionally the river's name is mistakenly translated to mean "river of death", but this is probably in reference to the number of accidental drownings that occur in it every year.
 |
This map shows the lake that would have been. |
The free-flowing Meramec River narrowly avoided having several
dams built on it by the
Corps of Engineers.
Congress authorized several large dams in the upper
Mississippi and Meramec river basins in
1938 following severe flooding in both
1927 and
1937. The
war intervened, plans were delayed and altered, but the
Meramec Basin Project finally started moving forward in the
1960s. The main dam was to be at
Sullivan, Missouri, at
Meramec State Park, with several additional dams upstream. However, these plans ran into opposition from the growing
environmental movement of the
1960s and
1970s, as well as from recreational users of the free-flowing Meramec. The failure of the
Teton Dam in
1976 increased the public's doubt about the wisdom of the project.
Grass-roots opposition forced politicians originally in favor of the project to reconsider. At the request of Sens.
Jack Danforth and
Tom Eagleton, Missouri Gov.
Kit Bond allowed a non-binding
referendum to be put on ballots in twelve surrounding counties, and on
August 8,
1978, sixty-four percent of the voters rejected the dam proposal. The referendum carried no legal weight but caused Congress to reconsider. Under President
Jimmy Carter, funding was removed from the project, and in
1981, President
Ronald Reagan signed the bill finally de-authorizing the project. This was the first time that a Corps of Engineers project was stopped once construction had already begun, and marked a major victory for the American environmental movement.
*
List of Missouri rivers*Tributaries:
Big River,
Bourbeuse River*
US EPA Meramec River Website *
US Fish and Wildlife Service *
National Park Service: Missouri *
Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources*
Missouri Department of Conservation River and Watersheds: Meramac*
U.S. Department of the Interior Water Resources of Missouri*
The Meramec Basin Project - A Look Back 25 Years Later
