CAUGHT AT OSCEOLA MO – Spoonbill / Paddlefish

 Damming the Osage  No Responses »
Mar 042023
 

Paddlefish grow big and photogenic. This late real photo postcard was not mailed, so there’s no postmark—possibly 1950s?

On the back of the low-contrast, rather unfocused postcard is a discussion of the edibility of the “spoonbill catfish,” written in blue ballpoint: “Most people eat them and say they are as good as any other fish—but some say they aren’t fit to eat and give them away. We never eat any so don’t know.” The writer explained, “the bill is about the size of a boat paddle.”

In fact, the more common name for these large plankton filter feeders is paddlefish. Their flesh is quite good, and their eggs are a decent substitute for caviar from sturgeon. In Missouri it’s illegal to transport or sell paddlefish eggs, however. Regulations vary from state to state. There is a legal commercial fishery for paddlefish on the Mississippi River.

Once a low hydroelectric dam at Osceola concentrated the spawning run of paddlefish. Before Truman Dam, the best spawning riffles for the paddlefish were between Osceola and Lake of the Ozarks. Truman Dam now thwarts the spawning run and has covered their opportunity for natural reproduction in Missouri. The Conservation Department maintains the population by raising them in hatcheries. Today artificially raised paddlefish are released into the reservoirs for the benefit of snaggers. Snagging with big treble hooks is the only way they can be taken. You can’t bait a hook with tiny zooplankton.

As beluga sturgeon are now a threatened species, an illegal trade in paddlefish eggs has developed. Poachers with Russian names have been arrested for smuggling paddlefish eggs and the caviar made from them. Their caviar sells for about $250 a pound. Mature females often carry 20 pounds of eggs (roe).

 

Lens & Pen Press is having a half-price sale for all titles. Damming the Osage is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $17.50 (half the original price of $35), postage paid. Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir, a 304-page color-illustrated book, tells the dramatic saga of human ambition pitted against natural limitations and forces beyond man’s control.

Lock & Dam No. 1 on the Lower Osage

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Apr 132021
 

1909 Construction photograph of Lock and Dam No. 1

In 1886, an Osage River Improvement Committee convened and, using Army Engineers plans, challenged Congress to make the river navigable clear to Kansas with a series of locks and dams. After delays, work on the first lock and dam began in September 1895 at Shipley Shoals then seven miles from the mouth of the Osage.

The pièce de résistance of the futile effort to render the Osage River navigable was Lock and Dam No. 1. In the twentieth century, Army Engineers became renowned for escalating the price of a dam after Congressional authorization and work had started. Underestimating construction costs has long been a skill of the Corps.

In 1891, Lock and Dam No. 1 was estimated to cost $187,244. By 1895, with the addition of Chanoine wickets to raise and lower water levels to keep from flooding farms upstream, a figure of $417,500 appeared in War Department documents. As this 1909 photograph shows, the project obviously took longer and cost more than had been stated in Corps of Engineers’ reports to Congress.

The impressive hunk of concrete and iron, 850 feet wide with a 40 by 220 foot lock, proved to be a mixed blessing. Upon completion in 1906, a 30-foot section washed away. The structure blocked barges, which were the most cost-effective river transportation.

In 2012, a drought lowered Osage River levels so much that the rotten remains of Lock & Dam No. 1 were exposed for all to see. Today it not only serves to block possible sturgeon and paddlefish migration to Osage River spawning beds, but every year or two someone drowns trying to navigate through it in high water.

 

From Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir. Lens & Pen Press is having a half price sale for all titles. Damming the Osage is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $17.50 (half the original price of $35), postage paid.

 

MEMORIES OF THE UNDAMMED OSAGE RIVER

 Damming the Osage  No Responses »
Jan 012021
 

Not included in the cost/benefit analysis of Corps of Engineers water resource projects are the economic, social and emotional costs of those who are dispossessed of their land.

China’s monster dam projects displaced millions of farmers and covered hundreds (or more) villages. They caused the extinction of China’s 20-foot-long paddlefish species, a close relative of our own Polyodon spathula. Truman Dam and Reservoir didn’t cause the extinction of the smaller American paddlefish, but it did necessitate development of an artificial breeding program by the Missouri Department of Conservation. That dam destroyed the spawning beds of the spoonbill, as they are called by locals.

There was an uncounted human cost as well. Hundreds of families lost their land to Truman reservoir. Not only was their compensation based on land sale records, in many cases old (some farms had not changed hands in generations) providing misleading valuations, but comparable acreage was not available to replace their livelihood of farming. So they were essentially put out of business. Some of those operations had been in business for a century or more and had supported successive generations of a family. During that time many memories were formed and family traditions established, which were now severed.

Melanie Pruitt with her grandparents on the Sac River in 1980.
Praise to George Eastman whose 1-A Kodak first made the family snapshot feasible. Photos like this have preserved a record of pleasant, fleeting moments that might be forgotten without a picture.
Thanks to Melanie Pruitt for permission to reproduce this lovely image.

We received an email recently that poignantly describes this emotional cost of losing land to ill-justified “multipurpose” dam and reservoir schemes. With permission, here is the email from Melanie Pruitt with a wonderful snapshot of young Melanie with her grandparents on the Sac River arm of the headwaters of Truman Reservoir:

I read Damming the Osage from cover to cover in 72 hours after receiving. … It was beyond amazing. I have spent YEARS trying to explain to people the impact of this situation. And everyone always says, but it’s for flood control. My family was very much impacted by this and lost land to the Corps, but not nearly as much as many, many others impacted. I haven’t stopped talking about your book, as I now can fully explain to people something I always believed in but never knew the whole story or how to explain.

Attaching a pic of me with my grandparents from summer of 1980 on the Sac river, taken just west of new bridge on 82 highway in Osceola. The lake hadn’t completely filled yet (close though) but the color of the water was still blue, not brown. That’s what’s chilling. It’s the last pic I have of me and my grandparents together, as my grandpa passed away in January 1981. I could go on for eternity on what this river means to me, my family, etc. and the impacts of everything.

The Sac is now also dammed farther upstream at Stockton.

 

 

 

The story of Osceola and many of the colorful characters who lived there (including the James and Younger brothers) is woven through our 304-page book. It is now available for $17.50, half the original price, from our website 

Newspaper article claims, “Paddlefish survive wild ride over dams.” Do they? Really?

 Damming the Osage, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Apr 262020
 

The Springfield News-Leader ran an intriguing article on paddlefish going over dams and surviving. Sadly, it didn’t mention that most are killed whether they go through the turbines or over the top in a flood. It’s common to see pieces of paddlefish below dams after they were sucked into turbines and chewed up. Our guess is one out of hundreds survive.

But it’s heartening to know that this incredible, giant prehistoric fish occasionally gets lucky. Corps of Engineers’ dams have contributed to their conceivably endangered future. While the adults thrive in reservoir pools, damming blocks access to their spawning grounds.

In our book, Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir, the fate of the paddlefish occupies many pages. Truman Dam destroyed the best spawning grounds in the country. All the paddlefish in Missouri are hatchery-spawned and raised. We quoted a publication by the American Fisheries Society entitled, “The Paddlefish: Status, Management and Propagation” (1986):

Finally, a note of caution. Although techniques for producing and stocking paddlefish were presented in this symposium, we do not consider stocking to be an answer to habitat deterioration and management problems. These techniques were developed for special circumstances where stocking was the only way to maintain a population. Artificial propagation and stocking should not be used as a cure-all or substitute for wise or practical management. Trying to solve problems by treating symptoms is expensive and ineffective. In addition, stocking would affect the integrity of paddlefish gene pools and is ill-advised until we know a lot more about the genetics of this species.

The MICRA paddlefish-sturgeon committee issued a warning in 1998 that “the use of hatcheries to reduce population declines is not a substitute for solving the causes of declines.” In addition to genetic considerations, the paper listed six other problems with stocking,hatche of which “delaying habitat restoration” was the worst.

page 236, Damming the Osage

The Department of Conservation fisheries people are to be praised for keeping the paddlefish from vanishing from Missouri waters. It’s an expensive program and should there be a severe recession raising paddlefish might be defunded. MDC gets most of its money from a conservation sales tax. This largely bypasses political control. Some politicians wish to do away with this arrangement. It’s likely, should the state legislature control the MDC budget, urban interests might not be favorably disposed to maintaining the paddlefish-raising program. Paddlefish might be seen as expendable.

The fate of the paddlefish (or spoonbill) was central to a lawsuit to stop Truman Dam—which obviously failed. Our 304-page book, Damming the Osage, is available on amazon.com or this website at a discount, postage paid

BIG FISH IN WARSAW – and we’re not talking paddlefish (for once)!

 Damming the Osage  No Responses »
Oct 032019
 

 

Research for Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir had us crisscrossing the lake, river and roads that make up the Osage River watershed. One focus of the book was the loss of the spawning grounds of the paddlefish – today’s specimens are direct descendants of a prehistoric, cartilaginous fish and still roaming the waters of the Osage and Missouri river systems. But they’re not the only fish in the rivers and lakes.

One afternoon in our wanderings we came across a giant folk art concrete crappie (above) hanging from a pole in front of a taxidermy shop south of Warsaw. Naturally this concrete creature of immense proportions caught our eye. We included it on a spread with a big paddlefish (page 145, Damming the Osage). That was about 10 years ago.

In late May of this year, we were astonished to see that same monstrous crappie (there can only be one of these!) guy-wired to the back wall of Cody’s Bait & Tackle shop  across the river from downtown Warsaw.

Naturally we pulled in to ask how it crossed the river. We talked with proprietor Cody. He said it was made by the owner of the taxidermy shop where we had originally seen it. Cody purchased it from his widow. We suggested he donate it to the Benton County Historical Society—an idea he rejected. He loves that fish. And who wouldn’t?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damming the Osage and all Lens & Pen books are available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.

CHALLENGING KEN WHITE’s article on Paddlefish in the News Leader

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Mar 132018
 

A year ago – almost to the day – Ken White published an article on the opening of the 2017 paddlefish season on the Osage River and its tributaries. A couple of days ago, we found an almost identical article in a couple of regional newspapers, including the Springfield News-Leader. Last year, we wrote to Mr. White, noting the absence of any reference to the artificial breeding program for paddlefish at Blind Pony hatchery run by the Department of Conservation. Made necessary by the destruction of this ancient fish’s primary spawning beds when Truman Dam closed, the fish now trapped in lakes or swimming the upper or lower reaches of the Osage are hatchery spawn, and paddlefish snagging season is an outgrowth of the put-and-take program, fundamentally no different than hatchery trout with the same potential for disastrous genetic outcome.

Repeatedly, Mr. White refers to their “spawning run . ..  when the fish are concentrated in their spawning grounds.” Then he speaks of their “spawning rituals.”  Mr. White, please verify with an ichthyologist or limnologist that they are in fact successfully spawning in Missouri rivers. And he ends the piece with snaggers “ready to hook a fish that has survived for centuries.” As the paddlefish no longer successfully reproduces, they will “survive for centuries” only if the expensive artifical spawning program of the Conservation Department survives future budget cuts and the genetics don’t degenerate with reproducing a limited gene pool.

Right: Paddlefish legally snagged on the James River arm of Table Rock Lake near Cape Fair. 

“Paddlefish have been lost from four states and Canada, and eleven of twenty two states within the remaining species range now list the paddlefish as endangered, threatened, or a species of special concern. Restoration of paddlefish populations is a shared goal of many state and federal agencies.” (USGS)

Below: Map from USGS paddlefish study showing the diminishing range of the paddlefish

 

If journalists like Mr. White continue to ignore the scientific realities of conservation of species, how will the public be able to make informed choices when such issues are presented in the public forum? Truman Dam is the source of the paddlefish’s dilemma. Had the public realized the consequences of this monstrously unwise project, the lawsuit might have had a different outcome. At the time, the Conservation Department repressed the findings of their fisheries biologists because one of the commissioners was an avid supporter of the project. Ignorance continues, abetted by Mr. White.

Last year, we even offered to send him a copy of our book, Damming the Osage. Mr. White did not reply. So this year, we won’t email him our suggestions. We’ll just share our thoughts with you.

March 11, 2017:
Your article was informative about the paddlefish and included some local color and good pictures. However, there was no mention of the sad fact that snagging is a put and take fishery. The “spawning run” is a swim up the river to futility. Paddlefish snagged in the Osage above Bagnell Dam and James River arm of Table Rock are artificially reproduced and raised at the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Blind Pony Hatchery. This is a hugely expensive operation and will, in the long run, produce a genetically unfit creature that resembles the malformed rainbow trout that are the product of generations of aquaculture. Department biologists are well aware of this and it can be overcome somewhat by mixing in genetic material from paddlefish from other regions but that’s a lot of trouble and adds even more expense.
Truman Dam destroyed the only reliable paddlefish spawning environment. Occasionally eggs are produced on the upper Osage and James but there’s no indication they survive and mature.  It’s a very bad situation and if the public doesn’t understand it, the extraordinary measures that may be necessary in the future for the survival of the species may not be undertaken, as funds are research will surely be necessary.
We cover this in a book we published several years ago, Damming the Osage. If you’d like a copy, please email me your mailing address. We have quite a discussion of these issues on our website: www.dammingtheosage.com
It’s a nice piece, but incomplete. Sooner or later there will be more challenges for the paddlefish and only a community of well-informed sportsmen stand between survival and extinction. Truth is they are hanging from a slender thread even with the heroic actions of the Department of Conservation.

Our sons, Strader and Ross, supplied some video of paddlefish in China which we incorporated into a short video on the current dilemma of the paddlefish worldwide. See it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rmT090b9NT0

Damming the Osage and James Fork of the White are available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.

Book Review: OSCEOLA: A TOWN ON THE BORDER

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Apr 212017
 

A visitor driving into the St. Clair County seat, Osceola, today sees a small town with some 19th-century store facades, a classic Art Moderne movie theater (now empty), a mural proclaiming its rich and sometimes violent past and a million-dollar jail. Courthouse towns are more resistant to oblivion than many small towns. And Osceola is just a mile off US Highway 13, a major north-south artery. Beyond the square, a fatter Osage River stalls as it becomes the backwaters of Truman Reservoir. The riverfront is quiet – no boats or fishing docks or swimming beaches. Only the mural, “A town where history lives,” hints at the town’s rather amazing story.

In his new book, Osceola: A Town On The Border, Lawrence Lewis defies the borders or boundaries of the local history genre, opting instead for setting his small hometown in the context of history, philosophy, and environmental wrangling. Lewis identifies three key events that have shaped the town and brought it to its current state: the burning of the city by Jim Lane and his Kansas bushwhackers during the Civil War; 1870 bonds on the taxpayers to build a railroad that never materialized; and, last, the building of Truman Dam and the tremendous impact that had on the small city’s politics, population, and tax base.

The event that still rankles and has shaped its self-image was the 1861 burning of the town by Kansas Jayhawkers. Before the Civil War conflagration, Osceola had been a bustling trade center. In his research, Larry Lewis found an enthusiastic description penned by the newspaper editor in 1860: “Osceola can boast of better hotels, more accommodating landlords, deserving landladies, prettier women, handsomer men, faster horses, warmer weather, meaner water, more business, better whiskey, lager beer and ale, and (fewer) churches, preachers and church-going people and Sabbath Schools than any other town in the state, St. Louis not excepted.” With such a lively burg and its likely prospects for prosperity, it’s no wonder the event is still central to the town’s identity.

Osceola native and St. Louis teacher, Lawrence (Larry) Lewis is shown in this photo from the late 1960s wearing a poncho for protection against morning rains and mist from the water flowing over Osceola Dam. Ancestors of Larry’s settled near the Osage River and its tributaries Tebo Creek and Hogles Creek in St. Clair, Henry and Benton counties, Missouri, in the 1830s.

 

As well as intriguing stories and characters, Osceola: A Town On The Border, relates some little-known geologic history. Only recently was it determined that Osceola sits in a bowl created by an asteroid strike 350 million years ago. “Kaboom…” announces Chapter 2, which is devoted to this geologic peculiarity. One of the 50 largest impact craters on earth, it may be the largest exposed impact crater in the U.S. The impact somehow created perfectly round rocks that are scattered all over. Sometimes called “Osceola round rocks” or “Weaubleau eggs,” they look like geodes but are not. They’re often embedded in foundations or stone fences in Osceola. The composition of impact breccia is not often discussed in local histories. Throughout the book, the author weaves tidbits of scientific information into the story of the town.

The seat of St. Clair County, Osceola once bustled, its riverfront busy with occasional steamboats. Frequently visitors needed transport upriver to Monegaw Springs, a spa of health-giving waters and bluff-top views of the river. Lewis has searched existing written accounts of Osceola and includes good amount of his own family history.

No book on this part of the country would be complete without mentioning the gun battle at Roscoe between two of the Younger brothers and Pinkerton detectives sent by the railroad from Chicago to capture the train-robbing associates of Jesse James. Roscoe is on the road between Osceola and Monegaw, where the Youngers liked to hang out. John Younger and two of the Pinkertons were killed in the shootout. Dr. Lawrence Lewis was one of the post-mortem attending physicians.

Truman Dam at Warsaw blocked paddlefish from the upper Osage and drowned their spawning grounds. Today, the Missouri Department of Conservation artificially raises paddlefish. These hatchery-raised fish are stocked in the lake and make spawning runs up the Osage but reproduction is very rare. Osceola is also not far from significant waterfowl hunting at Schell-Osage.

Although the Osage River (now backed up by Truman Dam and Reservoir) still forms one border of the town, Osceola is “Not the River Town it used to be,” as Chapter 5 is titled. The riverbank is now owned by the Corps of Engineers and is off limits to commercial marinas. “Some losses are forever,” Lewis sums up the story of Truman Dam and Reservoir and his hometown.

One might not recognize Osceola as a seat of Platonic philosophy, but as a result of the work and life of Thomas Moore Johnson, “the Sage of the Osage,” Osceola was at one time the center of Platonism in the Midwest. Johnson was an acquaintance of the New England transcendentalists and collector of learned tomes, leaving a renowned library (known locally as the “book house”) of esoteric and wide-ranging works of philosophy and religions of the world in many languages.

Lewis’s research ranges widely from court records of the environmental lawsuit and scientific analysis of the meteor strike to historic correspondence of citizens and more recent personal reminiscences, his own and those of other longtime residents. The town this book reveals is surprising. Readers will go on a voyage of discovery in Osceola: A Town on the Border.

This review is also published in the April issue of River Hills Traveler (http://www.riverhillstraveler.com/ ) In addition to the review, we provided RHT a number of vintage photos of Osceola on the Osage.

OSCEOLA: A Town on the Border, by Lawrence B. Lewis, is available on amazon.com             CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.Paperback, 174 pages. $18.99

COMING IN 2017: JAMES FORK OF THE WHITE: Transformation of an Ozark River.

Sample pages from this new book can be seen at www.beautifulozarks.com

Our earlier ‘river book,’ DAMMING THE OSAGE, can be seen at www.dammingtheosage.com