In the town of Weldon Spring, Missouri lies a nature park that literally is on top of a site full of radio active sludge.
When thinking of a place to take a nice and leisurely stroll through nature, a hotbed of nuclear waste is likely not the destination that comes to mind. However, near the town of Weldon Spring,Missouri, visitors can do just that at the Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail. What is even more bizarre is that this place is pretty much exactly as it sounds: a place to explore nuclear waste.
The current site of the Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail used to be home to the largest explosives factory in the nation for a portion of the Cold War. Later on, the property would become a uranium refinement plant that would later become abandoned in the 1960s. 20 years after the abandonment, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to take a look at the site again and found a mess of mercury, radioactive sludge, uranium, and radium in its place. The solution was to create a rock tomb over nuclear waste.This mountain of gravel and sandstone that covers the waste is now the site that tourists can explore.
The Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail is a prime example of how to make lemonade when life gives you lemons, as it is quite impressive what has been done to convert a borderline environmental disaster into possibly the best tourist attraction in the town of Weldon Spring. In addition to the trail that goes over the“mountain” which covers the toxic waste, there is also a fascinating visitor center on the scene which does an excellent job of detailing the site’s history in relation to the Cold War as well as the conversion into a tourist attraction. They have also done a nice job in highlighting environmental issues of the area and have converted many parts around the waste site into nature trails and wildlife preserves. While it may seem like a weird place to visit(and it undoubtedly is weird), visiting this site is certainly worth your time.
