Aquifer: A Novel (6 page)

Feeling to change the subject, Dr. Mclninch pointed at Larry with his fork between bites, “Well, I hope
the kid
works out for you, I sure hate to lose him from my department.”

“Well, we’ll see how a boy from the Bronx adapts to camping all summer in hillbilly country,” joked Clayton.

Everyone laughed.

Larry was embarrassed but smiled good-naturedly while chewing the last of his lunch. He quickly glanced past Clayton’s shoulder hoping to steal a peek at Tina’s table, only to be disappointed that she had gone.

“But the summer won't be all work,” Clayton continued. “I’ve been told that the rivers down there have some of the best bass fishing you'll ever experience. Why don't you guys come down for a few days and we'll see if we can’t find where the lunkers hide?”

“Can’t,” lamented Mclninch. “I'm teaching all summer.”

“Well I'm not. You just name the day and I’ll be there,” Welton responded enthusiastically.

=/\=

C
HAPTER
F
OUR

Camp

Deep in the Ozark Mountains of Southern Missouri, the gentle rolling hills extended from horizon to horizon. The trees and foliage were so thick that except for an occasional outcropping of rocks, passengers in a plane flying overhead would never see the ground. Many of the locals referred to the thick underbrush and lofty tree-top canopy as the Missouri Jungle. The verdant forest was cris-crossed with hundreds of crystal clear rivers and streams, most of which were fed by the local karst formations, though several received their water from deep water springs arising from the continental aquifer.

Geologic
karst
systems center around a large localized aquifer or watershed area characterized by an irregular limestone region with many sinkholes, sink basins (which may cover thousands of acres), caverns, caves, conduits, tubes, springs, grottos and underground streams, rivers and lakes. Water enters a karst system either directly, by flowing into one of nature’s storm drains such as a sinkhole, cave or losing stream (which is a sinking or disappearing stream), or indirectly by gently seeping through the soil and percolating down to the bedrock, where it settles in the localized aquifer, hundreds or even thousands of feet below the surface.

During eons in the long distant past, the geographic area which is now occupied by the Central United States was predominately covered by a calm, shallow, tropical sea. The sea produced a thriving variety of shelled organisms that lived, died, and sank to the bottom. Over time the deposits of calcium-rich shells and skeletons solidified, forming a bedrock several hundred feet thick consisting of limestone, dolomite, gypsum and other calcium based sedimentary rock. This porous layer of soft rock capped the hard igneous rock beneath it.

At some point in prehistory, the shallow sea was displaced when magma deep within the Earth’s crust lifted up the bedrock into a gentle domed-shaped plateau. This plateau covers parts of present-day Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas, and is known as the Ozark Plateau or Ozark Dome. The geologic stresses of uplift and erosion created deep cracks and fissures in the soft rock.

Calcium based rocks, such as limestone and dolomite, can be dissolved by dilute acids over time. Water becomes slightly acidic when it combines with carbon dioxide while passing through decaying organic debris in the soil. When this naturally produced acidic water passes through cracks or seams in the soluble rocks it gradually dissolves them, resulting in the creation of caves, conduits, springs and underground drainage systems characteristic of karst landscape.

South Central Missouri in particular is home to one of the most highly developed karst topographies in the world. It is a virtual honey comb of caves, sinkholes, springs and grottos linking vast portions of the interstate region. Surface water is readily transported from one area to another through these subterranean conduits.

The Ozark aquifer is an immense groundwater reservoir that covers more than half of the State of Missouri, as well as vast parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas. The aquifer stores some 208 trillion gallons of groundwater, held in rock fractures at depths up to 3,000 feet underground.

Above ground, the valley floors which separate the peaks of Ozark mountains, are only 400 to 500 feet above sea level, a surprising and unexpected fact for land located in the center of the country. With few exceptions, the
mountains
themselves seldom achieve heights greater than 1,000 feet. The highest peak in the State of Missouri, Taum Sauk Mountain, is located in the southern Ozarks, though its towering pinnacle achieves a height of only 1,800 feet.

Large tracts of Ozark land has been designated as either national forests, national parks, or state parks. The preponderance of these parks and recreational areas created a bustling tourist industry.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending upon one’s perspective, the small towns that thrived upon tourist trade during the summer months become virtual ghost towns during the off seasons. With little permanent industry to provide jobs, the youth of the area generally leave upon graduation from high school, flocking to the big cities in search of vocations or further education.

One of these numerous national parks straddled the Jack’s Fork River and took in the forest surrounding Alley Spring in Shannon County. Alley Spring was a large artesian spring that gushed over fifty million gallons of water daily and was located just six miles west of the town of Eminence on State Highway 106. Why the road was called a highway was a question asked by many tourists from out-of-state. The roadbed, only one lane in each direction, was just a graveled road up until the early 1970s. At best, the highway was a narrow country road winding through the hilly mountainside, connecting quaint little country towns that seemed distinctly out of place in the bustling twenty-first century of metropolitan America.

Typical of most national parks, Alley Spring sported a large campground, which was situated just east of the spring basin. Over two hundred individual campsites as well as several large group sites accommodated the demands of campers from all over the country. Because of the high popularity of this beautiful setting a second campground was also located about a mile and a half further upstream, on Highway 106. A sign at the secondary campground entrance announced:

– A
LLEY
S
PRING
C
AMPGROUNDS
–

O
ZARK
N
ATIONAL
S
CENIC
R
IVERWAYS

M
ARK
T
WAIN
N
ATIONAL
F
OREST

Beyond the sign the vast camping area stretched for almost a mile through a wide valley along the southern bank of the Jack’s Fork River. Each individual campsite, of which there were over 150, consisted of a wooden plank picnic table, a concrete lined fire pit, a free-standing charcoal barbeque, a culinary water spigot, and lots of open area for tenting, volleyball, or other sporting activities. The campsites themselves, as well as the spacious open areas separating them, were softly carpeted with thick luxuriant grass. Many of the camping sites also had R.V. pads with utility connections, though the majority of campers still preferred tents.

One of the alluring draws to this particular park, besides the beauty of the spring and the warm waters of the Jack’s Fork River, was the spaciousness of the campsites. Vacationers did not feel like sardines crammed into tiny niches where even hushed conversations thundered in the ears of the campers in the adjacent campsite.

Public bathrooms were spaced every 30 campsites. The large brick buildings featured flush toilets and hot showers. The Park Service sponsored daily nature hikes, and each evening there were lectures in the amphitheater.

This was definitely not what Larry had envisioned when he learned he would be
camping
all summer. On the contrary, this, he thought, was more like an extended picnic in a beautiful park with all the conveniences of home.

Larry and Dr. Clayton had been camping at the Jack’s Fork campground for only a week. They intended to use that site as their base camp throughout the remainder of the summer, though they also planned on taking numerous two or three-day trips to peripheral areas.

Though there was no logging allowed within the park itself, the hundreds of springs, rivers, streams and caves within it received their water from the recharging areas located many miles beyond the park’s boundaries. Thus by monitoring the water conditions within and around the park they would be able to accurately determine the pollution levels created by logging operations conducted within a 5,000 square mile area.

The Ozark’s highly developed karst system concentrated and funneled water flows from the surrounding areas into the park’s waterways. Using well documented and long established dye-tracing methods it was easy to accurately determine the specific watershed source, and hence the logging area, which supplied water to each spring, cave, stream and river within the park.

Clayton’s campsite was situated at the back end of the campground and only about two hundred yards from the Jack’s Fork River. It consisted of two large fifth-wheel type trailers; one was used for their living quarters and the other contained a fully equipped zoological lab. Parked next to the trailers was an F-150 pickup truck and a black Hummer H-2. An oversized utility trailer, hauling a bass boat and miniature chem lab, rested nearby. Additionally, a screen tent covered their three-foot by eight-foot wooden plank picnic table which had been chained to a nearby hickory tree preventing it from washing downstream whenever the Jack’s Fork flooded. Coleman lanterns hung from poles for use at night.

Larry was up early that morning and sat at the table inside the screen tent pouring over books and charts. In both the early morning and evening, the mosquitoes swarmed in great numbers. Larry appreciated the protection the screen tent afforded.

In fact, the preponderance of insects was one of the first things that struck Larry about the Ozarks. It seemed that there were bugs everywhere; flying, climbing, crawling, all kinds. He used bug repellent several times a day to ward off the mosquitoes, gnats, chiggers, mites, and ticks.

The tremendous variety of insects piqued his curiosity. He had studied a little entomology at the university but had not grasped the enormity of the vast diversity of the insect kingdom until now.

Houseflies, horseflies, dragonflies, damselflies, and fireflies rapidly zipped through the air while butterflies, moths and silky, gossamer-winged flying varieties fluttered about more gracefully.

Honeybees, sweatbees, bumblebees, hornets, wasps, yellow-jackets, and mud-daubers feverishly attended to their work of gathering pollen or the building materials with which to fashion their nests.

Giant black ants, three quarters of an inch in length and ants as tiny as specs crawled about in the grasses and on the trees. They were joined by red ants, white ants and fuzzy, hairy, fire ants. Their termite cousins devoured the dead and fallen trees that littered the landscape throughout the forest, while caterpillars, grubs, centipedes and millipedes infested the decaying vegetation strewn about the forest floor.

Hard-shelled crawling beetles of every shape, color and size could be found, and multi-winged flying beetles that crash-landed on table tops and dinner plates were often uninvited meal-time guests. Rhino-horned beetles, stag beetles and dung beetles hid wherever there were dried leaves or rotting logs.

Grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, and the ever-present but annoying cicada locusts made their presence well known.

Dainty ladybugs, multi-colored June bugs, large black stink bugs, walking-sticks, scorpions and giant preying mantis were among the more interesting creatures.

Some bugs were blood-suckers, others were sap-suckers, milk-suckers, juice-suckers, nectar-suckers and pollen gatherers; while others simply chewed the leaves of the numerous plants around them. Many were carnivorous, others were strict vegetarians, most were omnivores, eating anything and everything that got in their path.

Where there were that many bugs there had to be spiders. Larry had never seen so many varieties. They ranged from spiders so tiny that they were almost impossible to see up to gigantic monsters two inches across.

Some spiders were aggressive hunters, stalking their prey over wide areas. Others were stationary web builders that patiently waited for their prey to come to them.

Larry’s most startling spider discovery however, was the red, hairy tarantulas, with legs as thick as pencils. Technically they were
trap door spiders,
but that nomenclature did not do them justice. Their abdomen and thorax exceeded two inches in length and their leg span approached six inches in diameter. They were aggressive hunters. One day when Larry had been walking down the path to the river he came across one. He grabbed a stick and began to poke at it playfully. He tried to turn it over with the tip of the stick and hemmed it in when it tried to escape. Unfortunately, he learned that even though these giant spiders were generally quite docile with regard to people and actually made very nice house pets, that nevertheless, when threatened they could jump up to six feet and were not afraid of attacking humans. They delivered a very painful bite. That’s when he decided to leave them alone.