The Hamburg Trail

The Hamburg Trail is an eight-mile hiking and biking trail which links the Katy Trail to the August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area Headquarters. The trail was created as part of a cooperative effort between the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) during the Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project (WSSRAP). , The WSSRAP was responsible for the environmental cleanup of former explosives production and uranium processing facilities that were located in this part of St. Charles County. As the trail winds through the woodlands and prairies of the Weldon Spring Conservation Area, the August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area, and the Weldon Spring Site, historical markers depict what life was like for the people that lived and worked in this area, commemorate the lost towns of Howell, Hamburg, and Toonerville, and describe different phases of the WSSRAP cleanup. , Burgermeister Spring , This perennial spring lies in the midst of a 640-acre tract which was originally a Spanish Land Grant. In 1798, the land was awarded to Alexander Andrews by Spanish Lieutenant Governor Don Zenon Trudeau. In 1800, Andrews sold the land to Francis Howell, Sr. The land stayed in the Howell family for several generations until 1870, when the land was sold to Mathias and Johanna Burgermeister. It remained in the Burgermeister family until 1940 when the U.S. government displaced the residents for the purpose of building an explosives production plant to benefit the war effort. Today, Burgermeister Spring is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's long term monitoring plan for the Weldon Spring Site. Dye tracing studies conducted in the 1990s showed a hydraulic connection between the groundwater at the site and the spring. , The Weldon Spring Site, Site History , From 1941 to 1945, as par of the World War II defense effort, the U.S. Army produced explosives at the Weldon Spring Ordnance Works, a 17,232-acre facility near Weldon Spring, Missouri. After the war, the government transferred ownership of some of this land to the State of Missouri, which used it to create the August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area. Another portion went to the University of Missouri, which used it for agricultural purposes and to St. Charles County and the Francis Howell School District. The Army retained the remainder for use as a training area. Currently, about 15,000 acres of the original Ordnance Works facility is owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation comprising the August A. Busch Memorial and Weldon Spring Conservation Areas., In 1955, the Army transferred some 200 acres to the Atomic Energy Commission for construction of the Weldon Spring Uranium Feed Materials Plant. From 1957 to 1966, this plant processed uranium ore concentrates and a small amount of thorium. , Site Cleanup , Due to the hazards of the wastes that remained on site, in 1986 the DOE created a project office at the Weldon Spring Site and established a cleanup effort known as the Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project. Surface remediation activities concluded with construction of a disposal cell as a repository for 1.48 million cubic yards of waste. The disposal cell, which covers about 45 acres, was completed in 2001 and provides long-term isolation and management of the radioactively and chemically contaminated waste materials.