Hartsburg Bottoms and Bluffs

Hartsburg Bottoms and Bluffs. . , Stones for Homes , The people of Hartsburg cut blocks of limestone from the bluffs to make foundations for their homes. Clay, obtained by digging into the bluffs, was molded and baked into bricks. These bricks, made here in the early 1900s, are still in use in several of the town's buildings. In the 1920s, rock from the bluffs was crushed and spread on the mud streets., Fertile Farmland , Many who settled in Hartsburg did so because they knew the value of bottomland soil. Until the mid-1900s, it only took 40 to 80 acres to support a large family through a diversified approach that included raising animals for eggs, milk and meat and growing vegetable gardens as well as growing crops of wheat and corn for sale. Much has changed, but these bottoms continue to serve as prime cropland, often producing 30 to 40 percent more than upland croplands of Missouri., Geology and Soils Cause Bottoms and Bluffs to Differ like Night and Day , Soils in the bottoms are alluvium, having been eroded from uplands and deposited here by the flooding and meandering of the Missouri River. These bottomland soils are made up of fine silt and loam, are rich in nutrients and are about five feet deep. Moisture is abundant because the bottoms are almost flat, the water table is only a few feet below the surface and the soil is rich in organic matter. Vegetation is lush and provides food for microorganisms and insects that in turn support fish, birds and other wildlife. Wetland ecosystems are one of the most productive of any in the world., In contrast, soils on the bluff tops, produced from the break-down of the limestone rock over time, are high in clay content. Compounding the situation is the hilly terrain that causes much of each rainfall to run off of the bluff tops. With little moisture, there is little plant growth and thus little organic matter added to the soil. Plants well suited to the dry conditions of the rocky bluff tops include prickly pear cactus, numerous wildflowers and native grasses. Once kept open by fires, many glade ecosystems of the bluffs are now overgrown with eastern red cedar trees. , (photo captions:), ·Powered by steam engines, J.H. Nabler's threshing machines were used from 1900 to 1939 to separate grain from straw., ·Typically, in the first half of the 1900s, farmers sold most of their wheat to the mill, but some was ground and returned so that a year's supply of flour could be stored in bags in upstairs rooms of their homes., ·One of several flowering plants that inhabit dry bluff tops, lead plant is one of our more colorful legumes., ·River bulrush grows to be several feet tall and forms large colonies when it finds suitable habitat in shallow water and wet mud of sloughs and floodplains., ·Crops of soybeans, shown here, are harvested by combines and are made into a variety of food products ranging from vegetable oil to tofu., ·Held annually on the second weekend of October, the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival is a great family outing., ·Many of the pumpkins the Hackman family grows are shipped to stores and go home with families who carve them into jack-o-lanterns. Others decorate Hartsburg for the annual festival that attracts thousands of people to this tiny town each year., ·As a reptile needing to absorb heat from its environment, five-lined skinks prefer the sunny and rocky nature of bluffs and hillsides., ·The great plains toad, restricted in its range in Missouri to the floodplain of the Missouri River, hides in underground burrows by day and feeds on ants, beetles and other insects at nights. Its chee-ga, chee-ga, chee-ga calls may be heard after dusk, April-June.