Meramec River
Canoeists drift below Leasburg.
The State Meramec River Route 66 Park
The Meramec River, with a length of around 350 km one of the longest non-regulated rivers in Missouri.
It rises in the Mark Twain National Forest northwest of Bunker and flows through six counties of the Ozarks: Dent, Phelps, Crawford, Franklin County, Jefferson County and St. Louis before he empties at Arnold and Oakville in the Mississippi River. The difference in height between the source and the mouth is 313 m. The catchment area of the Meramec Rivers also extends even to parts of eight other counties: Maries, Gasconade, Iron, Washington, Reynolds, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve County and Texas. It comprises a total 10,300 km ². The river is open all year from Maramec Spring, just south of St. James and the mouth with water vehicles passable. The magnitude of the flux increases with the Dry Fork at the confluence.
History
The first Europeans on the river was the French Jesuit Father Jacques Gravier, who toured the area 1699-1700. He described the meaning of the name in the Algonquian language as a "river of ugly fish" or " ugly water ". Early versions were named " Mearamigoua ", " Maramig ", " Mirameg ", " Meramecsipy ", " Merramec ", " Merrimac ", " Mearmeig " and " Maramecquisipi ". Early on, the river was an important transport route for industrial raw materials and goods such as lead, iron and timber were shipped with a flat- boats and steamers with little depth downstream.
Today the river is used commercially by river cruise ships and barges for the transport of sand and gravel. He also traveled with canoes and crossed by ferries. Many roads lead to the river and its cliffs along and allow hikers a glimpse of ducks, herons, beavers and other wildlife species.
Einstein was one of the most polluted waters in Missouri. Local and state authorities have taken extensive steps to the river to clean the river. He is one of the most species-rich waters of the state. To occur in the river fish species are belonging to the sunfish species Pomoxis annularis ( "black crappie " ) and Pomoxis nigromaculatus ( "white crappie " ), the catfish species Ictalurus punctatus and Pylodictis olivaris, largemouth bass, paddlefish, rainbow trout, trout, rock bass, smallmouth bass, Walleye, also the presence of freshwater mussels is diverse. The endangered species of salamander Mud Devil ( Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis ) lives in the river.
Maramec Spring is the fifth largest source in Missouri. In Maramec Spring Park south of St. James are some historic ironworks and trout fisheries.
Meramec Basin Project
The free-flowing Meramec River escaped several times just the construction of dams by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Congress of the United States approved as a result of severe floods in the years 1927 and 1937 in 1938, several dams in the catchment area of the upper Mississippi River and the Meramec River. The Second World War interrupted these efforts. The plans were postponed and changed, but the Meramec Basin Project finally came in the 1960s rolling. The main dam was to be built at Sullivan, Meramec State Park, some more dams should occur further upstream. These plans were met with the environmental movement, which increasingly gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s in importance, as on defense as the seeking recreation on the river. The collapse of the Teton Dam in 1976 resulted in an increase of the doubt to the public at the point of the project.
Grassroots opposition forced politicians who had originally voted for the project to move its position again. At the request of Senators Jack Danforth and Thomas Eagleton was the Governor of the State of Missouri, Kit Bond, a non-binding referendum in twelve affected counties. On August 8, 1978 voted 64 percent of the voters against the project. Although the referendum had no legal significance, however, meant that the new Congress was debating the matter. Under President Jimmy Carter, the funds for the project were canceled in 1981 and signed his successor Ronald Reagan, the law with which the project was stopped. It was the first project of the Army Corps of Engineers, which was set after construction began, and thus was a major victory for the environmental movement in the United States dar.