The Weldon Spring Conservation Area, is a conservation area that is owned and managed by the

Missouri Department of Conservation The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and the Missouri Conservation Commission were created by Article IV Sections 40-42 of the Missouri Constitution, which were adopted by the voters of the state in 1936 as Amendment 4 to the constitut ...

and located in

St. Charles County St. Charles County is located in the central eastern part of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 405,262, making it Missouri's third-most populous county. Its county seat is St. Charles. The county was organ ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. The area borders the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

, and the

Katy Trail Katy Trail may refer to the following places in the United States: * Katy Trail (Dallas) 3.5 mile trail in Dallas, Texas * Katy Trail State Park The Katy Trail State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Missouri that contains the Katy T ...

runs through the area but is not considered part of the conservation area.

History

The area was named for John Weldon, who immigrated to the area in 1796 and acquired a Spanish Land Grant. During WWII The

U.S. Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executi ...

acquired nearly in the area to build a munitions plant. Portions of the Conservation Area were used by the

Weldon Spring Ordnance Works Weldon Spring Ordnance Works (WSOW) was a U.S. Government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) facility in St. Charles County, Missouri, 55 km west of St. Louis. The site was originally operated by the Atlas Powder Company during World War I ...

, and old

bunkers A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

formerly used for the storage of TNT still dot the area. The area is part of a

superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

site, and has been decontaminated.

TNT Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

and

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

processing were done on this site. All of the land except the munitions plant was given to the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

in 1948 for use as an agricultural experiment station. The Department of Conservation originally purchased from the University of Missouri to establish the conservation area in 1978.

Geography

The area currently has , which includes of forest and woodland, of cropland, of sparsely vegetation sand flats, of grassland, of lakes and ponds, of glades, and of wetlands. The area has numerous

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

cliffs overlooking the

. The floods of 1993 and 1995 deposited sand on almost of agricultural fields, which now provides valuable wildlife habitat.

Recreation

The area provides a wide variety of recreational activities.

Hunting and fishing

There are several small lakes and streams as well as the Missouri river that provide fishing opportunities in the conservation area. Hunting is permitted during special managed hunts as long as regulations are followed.

Hiking and biking

There are of trails in the conservation area. This does not include the Katy Trail, which is part of the state park system. Two of the trails, the Lewis and Clark trails, are open to hiking only, while the Lost Valley and Hamburg trails are open to both hiking and biking. *Lewis Trail - - hiking only *Clark Trail - - hiking only *Lost Valley Trail - - multi-use *Hamburg Trail - - multi-use

References

{{Protected Areas of Missouri Protected areas of St. Charles County, Missouri Nuclear weapons infrastructure of the United States Military Superfund sites Conservation Areas of Missouri Protected areas established in 1978 1978 establishments in Missouri