By Pauline Masson
A sixty-year-old National Park Service program targets geological treasures like our Sand Mountain to promote appreciation of the nation’s natural heritage.
President John F. Kennedy established the National Natural Landmark (NNL) program in May 1962 to identify and recognize outstanding examples of the natural features that “are important for the illustration of the basic geological and ecological story of America.”
The National Park Services runs the program which helps owners promote their site as a destination, recognizes the site on NNL Internet site and helps owners apply for grants. There is no cost to apply, and being accepted does not place any restrictions on the site.
Some sixteen sites in Missouri (among 650 nationally) are identified as National Natural Landmarks. None are more distinctive or accessible than our white silica bluff face.
I came across the National Park Service web page describing its National Natural Landmark program and was instantly struck by the fact that Sand Mountain is a prime example of a national natural landmark. It is unique. It is geological, ecological and historical. It is the site of the city’s first industry and its first tourist attraction. It holds two city parks and a replica Civil War canon.
Geologically, Sand Mountain is the tip of the proverbial iceberg for silica sand deposit that extends from Southern Warren county to the Mississippi river near Crystal City. The Pacific outcropping is among the most pure sandstone on earth.
The bluff face, which is visible from most of the city and the Hwy O approach from the south, once served as a location beacon for arriving pilots approaching the city’s former airport.
Before mining silica sand here, the site was known as Prospect Hill, a rounded mound with a gentle slope that early residents strolled up after their chores were done to enjoy a panoramic view.
“They could see all the way to Port William (modern day Gray Summit) where their post office was,” said the anonymous author of Pacific Looking Backward. The manuscript showed up in 1943 and was reprinted in the Meramec Valley Transcript.
Mining operations that exposed the bluff face began in the 1850’s, before the Civil War when Stuhlman and Arnst opened a pit and began furnishing sand with Harry Gross for St. Louis manufacturers
About the same time, Ault and. Marley, chief engineers with the Missouri Pacific and Frisco railroads – who later surveyed the Ault and Marley additions to the City of Pacific (originally Franklin) – began drifting the two caves that today extend several hundred feet into the mountain. The sand was picked by hand and shipped to Pittsburgh in barrels until the outbreak of the Civil War brought their operation to an end.
Residents grew accustomed to the exposed bluff face as part of the city. In 1878 gregarious entrepreneur Charles Clay Close painted an ad for his business, ‘C C Close Real Estate’ on bluff, where it was visible until Mr. Close’s demise in 1904
Mining in the 1880’s opened several beautiful caves and grottos in the bluff – all of which were obliterated in the middle of the night in 1891 when their limestone roof collapsed wth a tremendous roar that woke residents throughout the town. After the collapse, youngsters, dubbed the Sandpit Gang made the grottoes a playground.
During the 1890s the Pacific White Sand Company opened the pit started years before by Henry Williams. Later W. W. Goran continued operations effectually establishing the bluff face and cutting off any southern approach to Sand Mountain summit.
The series of cave opening and much photographed sandstone columns that face East Osage are testament that silica mining continued through the 1800s.
U.S. Silica Company started mining operations in Pacific in the early 1900s. The company continues to operate open pit surface mines east of the exposed bluff face and not visible in the city. Silica officials say there is enough silica sand in the open pits to continue mining operations here for another 100 years. The plant mines 98.8% whole grain silica sand from the St. Peter’s Formation.
Historically Pacific silica sand has been shipped all across the U.S. to flat glass and glass containers manufacturers, chemical plants, foundries, and the oil and gas industries. Geologists tell us it has been used in an esoteric list of things like tooth paste and paint. It’s wonderful for glass; the first silica mining operation in Pacific was actually a sand and glass company.
In 1932, a final face lift was administered and residents were treated to a series of ear-popping blasts, when the Missouri State Highway Department sheared away a fifteen-foot section of the mountain face to make way for the new Hwy 66.
For the brief glowing event electric light illuminated the bluff face, a live band played music at the base and citizens danced in the street into the wee hours of the morning to celebrate the opening of the new highway..
1935 The Henry Shaw Gardenway Association put up a bronze Civil War marker at significant locations on the new Route 66. The sign at Jensen’s Point was stolen and replaced several times. In. 2014 the Meramec Valley Genealogical and Historical Society replaced the marker with a painted aluminum sign that now stands at the base of Jensen’s Point.
In 1950, Queens Daughters, a St. Bridge Catholic Church sodality, conducted a citywide fundraising effort to buy statues to place in the old mining cave halfway up the face of Sand Mountain that faced St. Bridget School. The whole community funded the project and the community took ownership, turning out to stand at along Osage as the 15 statues were carried up the ladder – including Mary, Joseph, the infant Jesus, an Angel, the Three Wise Men and eight animals.
Route 66 was in its heyday and the lighted Nativity Scene in Sand Mountain became the city’s first tourist attraction bringing rows of cars along Route 66 to see the lighted Nativity Scene in the sand cave. The annual holiday display continues to this day.
The hilltop above the bluff became Blackburn Park in 1940 when Jasper and Margaret Blackburn donated it to the city to showcase Pacific’s importance on the Henry Shaw Gardenway, a beautification project to enhance the drive along Route 66 between the (Shaw’s) Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis and Shaw Nature Reserve (Arboretum) in Gray Summit.
Blackburn Park can be entered from North Second Street off Osage immediately east of the bluff, and Walnut Street off North First Street, one block north of Osage. The park offers visitors a panoramic view of the city and the Meramec River Valley. Visitors pose for selfies beside the replica Civil War cannon, that Zach Myers installed in 2013, as an Eagle Scout project. Since 1894, the bluff top park has also held the traditional lighted Christmas tree that the Pacific Lions Club installs each December.
Sand Mountain is arguably Pacific’s most geologically valuable, ecologically inviting and historically recorded site.
This post is offered as Chicken Soup for the Hometown crowd. Having Sand Mountain listed as a National Natural Landmark might not bring us any material benefit. But it couldn’t hurt.
What the city ought to do (after we get a city administrator) is to take another look at the “chain mail” on the front of the bluff. I understand why the lawyers are worried about the spring off-fall from the bluff, However. if you are making the right turn from I-44 westbound into town, once you are in the turn lane, glance to your right at that bluff. it too, is covered by modern “chain mail”– and I bet you never noticed it until I pointed it out. It is practically invisible, providing the same protection for the interstate.
As part of my presentation at the Red Cedar, I came up with about a dozen images and post cards of the front of Blackburn Park starting with a drawing from the 1860s, and going though some I took a couple weeks ago. The bluff face along old Route 66 *is* the icon for the city. We need to make it look the best we can.
By the way, while stopped there on Nov. 19, just before my talk and taking pictures from across the street, a pickup with a trailer and two guys pulled in to that parking lot. I walked over to see if they needed assistance, and ended up giving a mini-lecture on the sand, the mining and Pacific, after someone asked where they could get information on the bluff. Strangers to here, they were just passing through, and curious. And they stayed and listened to me. peppering me with questions for 10 minutes before they were satisfied, and traveled on.