Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center

One of the reasons we wanted to bring back Craves, Caves, & Graves was to update some of the most popular blogs with fresh photos and information. The Weldon Spring Interpretive Center, dubbed "Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail" by RoadsideAmerica.com, really deserved a less flippant treatment. I am 47 now, but I started this blog when I was 30 and still kind of a turd. As so many Francis Howell graduates have pointed out over the years, it really is not cool that they went to school right next to an unmitigated pile of radioactive materials and that so many of them, the workers who cleaned up the site, and the National Guard members who trained in the area, got very sick over the years. The government often does not do enough to admit fault and repair damage to communities, that's a fact.

We first visited this site in 2008, and then again in 2013. Since then, an ENTIRELY new interpretive center has been built, and I am pleased to say it is built to serve the community. There are many indoor classrooms and outdoor educational space available for community groups and non-profits to use free of charge. When we were there, a Garden Expo was taking place, and we saw signs for the weekly farmers market in the summer. They have STEM and historical field trip/educational programs for pre-K through collegiate level, and a 150 acre planted prairie surrounds the disposal cell & interpretive center. 

Does it do enough to admit harm? Well, if you are one of the folks affected, probably not. But I hope you will read on to understand why this site is crucially important.

If you're not familiar with this site from our past visits, Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center is a Superfund site with a 41 acre, 71 foot high disposal cell for radioactive waste. During World War II, they needed a site near a railway that could be used to manufacture explosives. This actually ended up erasing the towns of Howell, Hamburg, and Toonerville, and part of the interpretive center and a plaque on the cell commemorate these towns.

 
1940s: The site was used to manufacture the explosives DNT and TNT for WWII.
1950s: The site was used to process uranium ore ("yellow cake") and a nearby quarry was used to dispose of radioactive waste.
1960s: The military considered using the site to make Agent Orange, but never got past some initial cleanup efforts, and no Agent Orange was actually produced here.
1970s: The US Army used the site for military training. My dad trained here with the National Guard back then.
1980s: The Department of Energy took over and started the cleanup process, and cleanup continued through the 90s. 

By 2001, the toxic stew was piled up and buried under what I like to call a Post-Apocalyptic Cahokia Mound, and then a museum was built to tell us all about radiation and 21st century mound building. All together, there are almost 20 layers to this containment system between the base & the cover!

The reason we have visited this site 3x over the years is because Francis and I are interested in long term nuclear waste warning messages.  Nuclear waste will remain dangerous for ten thousand years or more. Humans ten thousand years ago did not speak any of the modern languages we have today. How do we warn humans 10,000 years in the future that this area is STILL a hazard? 

One such proposal was to have messages of varying complexity warning of the danger, like the one above. Another is hostile architecture, like giant spikes, a huge black slab of concrete or basalt, and one of my favorites, forbidden blocks, described as "a network of hundreds of house-sized stone blocks, dyed black and arranged in an irregular square grid, suggesting a network of "streets" which feel ominous and lead nowhere." (wikipedia)

For the present, there are concrete pillars at the top (none as big as a house) with bronze plaques describing the history of the site in English. No warnings of the danger to the body up here.

A family favorite is the Ray Cat idea, which suggests that since cats are likely to live domestically with humans indefinitely, maybe some cats could be bred to change color when they are near radiation. To accomplish this, there would need to be myths, fairie tales, and songs to pass down the message that color changing cats = danger. Emperor X even got that party started in 2014.

And finally, our 3rd favorite is the Atomic Priesthood Project, "an ongoing multidisciplinary project illustrating the relationships between humans and deep time, through the culture of nuclear waste stewardship." I hope that when you read this it's apparent that we fully understand how horrifying it is that we, as humans, have created something that is dangerous to life for 10,000+ years, and it's a huge undertaking to want to warn humans of this danger basically forever. So, while the things we make may give those of us with a dark sense of humor a bit of a chuckle, it's also always an opportunity for us to pass along that oral history. 

Link to Shop: https://whatahellofawaytodad.com/collections/radioactive-deals

Listen to Francis's interview with Nuclear Anthropologist Martin Pfeiffer about the Cold War era nuclear weapon system, the Davy Crockett.

Check out What a Hell of a Way to Dad Slideshow with Dad if you'd like to watch this in video form with Francis.