On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
The Red Pen
A zillion years ago, there was a volcano in Missouri. The remnant of this is Saint Francois Mountain. The surrounding elevated section of igneous rock then spent a few million years under a shallow sea, collecting a deep layer of calcium carbonate. Then the sea receded leaving a low igneous mountain range we call the Ozarks. After another really long time, a large river that we call the Mississippi carved a path right through leaving a flat flood plain about 10(?) miles wide. Most people think that the Ozarks are primarily in Missouri, but a really, really small piece of them is on the other side of the Mississippi in Illinois. On the Mississippi side is a cliff where the erosion ended. From there it slopes down for a handful of miles and becomes flat southern Illinois.
In more recent times, the ridge was mined for limestone to build buildings in Saint Louis. This left behind a network of artificial caves. Even more recently, the mines have been repurposed for storage and office space. Caesar’s Pizza has a refrigerated space of about 100,000 sf that would stay cold for at least 3 days if it lost power. There’s also a National Archives site that stores mainly military medical records.
View of the flood plane from the top of the ridge.
The National Archives Saint Louis Annex, built into the former limestone mine.
Tuesday Night Good News, Bad News, but Mostly Good News Open Thread
SiubhanDuinne
I love the narrative way you write about these ancient geological events. Just fascinating. (For an Illinois native, I know disgracefully little about the non-Chicagoland parts of the state.)
WereBear
I love rocks! We have similiar structures in our granite mountains.
eclare
Interesting. There are all kinds of geologic markers out there, you just have to know what to look for. Thanks!
swiftfox
Valmeyer was the town that had to relocate after the 1993 floods. I worked temporary duty from downtown St Louis in September 1993. Most of our time was spent waiting but we did do some useful analysis of sites where borrow material could be taken for more levees.
Prescott Cactus
@SiubhanDuinne:
Another Chicagoan with not enough knowledge of “down there.” Didn’t know the Ozark’s made it to Illinois and I used to vacation in Northern Arkansas (Mountain Home, Bull Shoals, Lakeview).
Thanks for sharing Watergirl !
raven
@Prescott Cactus: My mom’s family is from Du Quoin so I’ve spent a good bit of time in “Little Egypt”. Also my dad was the basketball coach at Benton right out of the U of I. George Harrison’s sister lived in Benton and George visited her there!
Trivia Man
I am always interested in the ELI5 geography descriptions, easier to understand and appreciate the current landscape with the simple mechanism of creation laid out.
That must be the same formation in Springfield. Huge network of caves used for storage. Some are served by railroad sidings inside, most have truck docks.
My former company did a lot of cheese storage in there and I always tried to wrangle one of the site visits. Never happened.
Lapassionara
This is so interesting. Thanks so much for sharing.
Betty
For someone who has always lived in mountainous areas, that third picture is dizzying. So flat!
prostratedragon
Huh, knew there were big storage caves in the Ozarks, but had no idea at least some of that was in Illinois.
The Red Pen
@swiftfox: When I first went to check out the area, I ended up driving up to Valemeyer. It didn’t make sense to me because the whole place looked new — like it was all built in the 90s.
Then, later, I found out that it was built in the 90s thanks to the 1993 flood forcing the town to relocate.
prostratedragon
@Betty: Feels like you can see the Rockies, doesn’t it? Somewhat north of there, when the corn is high you can get seasick driving through on a breezy day.
jimmiraybob
The Ozarks, or as I call them, the Hawaii/Yellowstone of the midwest. Lots of great hiking, canoeing and kayaking.
The flat flood plain of the “old” Valmeyer was a perfect place to view the first of the last two total solar eclipses – not many people thought to go there but I used to ride bikes over there back in the day.
There’s also a lot of good hiking there from bluffs to the floodplain (approximately 500′ difference in elevation – good local training before heading to the mountains). You can start and finish in New Valmeyer on the top and when you finish grab some pub grub and a Guinness at the Corner Pub when you get back.
beth
another (former) chicagoan who had no idea this existed. if we are ever driving through this region, i’m making a mental note to spend a bit of time poking around.
JeanneT
That’s a segment of Illinois I never visited – very cool! For those unfamiliar with downstate topography, I found a good article on the natural regions of Illinois: https://publish.illinois.edu/inhseducation/biodiversity/natural-divisions/
beth
another (former) chicagoan who had no idea this existed. if we are ever driving through this region, i’m making a mental note to spend a bit of time poking around.
beth
another (former) chicagoan who had no idea this existed. if we are ever driving through this region, i’m making a mental note to spend a bit of time poking around.
frosty
I’m glad to see the Archives moved there. Their storage building in St. Louis burned in (I think) 1971 and a lot of WWII military records are gone forever, including my father’s.
Interesting geology!
WaterGirl
@beth: No idea why you went into moderation!
raven
@JeanneT: Another great University of Illinois resource! I used to camp and fish at Hamilton, Il across the river from Keokuk, Iowa in section 5!
raven
I also got married at Allerton Park in Division 4!
pluky
A zillion years ago for the volcanism is no exaggeration. We’re talking Precambrian here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francois_Mountains
MelissaM
I came here to mention Valmeyer and 1993, but SwiftFox beat me to it. You Chicago area folks really should see the unglaciated parts of the state! The Shawnee Nat’l Forest in So. IL is wonderful!
Cool that the area is linked with the Ozarks.
JustRuss
When I lived in Missouri there was a limestone mine/cave not too far away, camped there once or twice. Thanks for reviving that memory.
arrieve
This is so cool! I love the places that turn up in On the Road.
Albatrossity
@frosty: It burned in 1973, and like you, my father’s military records were destroyed. That made it interesting when he died, and my mom wanted to take advantage of benefits to help cover the costs of the funeral. Fortunately he had retained a number of his records (discharge papers, promotions, etc.) and she was able to convince the powers-that-be that he really was a veteran…