

However, the town leaders and most residents were loyal to the Union cause and newly elected President Abraham Lincoln.ĭr. Like many other Missouri settlements, its residents were initially split over Missouri secession, and some were slave owners. When the Civil War began in 1861, Avilla was called home to about 100 people.

The old plant’s building is now a museum, allowing visitors to visit the site.Īlong with the museum, the Hamburg cemetery still has graves from the original settlers of the area.Guerilla Raid during the Civil War in Missouri by Thomas Nast, 1862. The site is now classified as a restricted area. The radioactive waste from the site was then dumped at a quarry near Hamburg. The former company processed uranium at the Weldon Spring site from 1957 to 1966 under a contract with the Atomic Energy Commission. The former Weldon Spring uranium processing plant is located 1.5 miles from the Hamburg Quarry. Army a rural Missouri area for developing weapons. The bridge helped provide jobs and opportunities to the southern part of the county. Then in 1937, the Daniel Boone Bridge was built. While the Missouri Conservation Commission designated an area near the quarry as a restricted zone, no one has lived there for 70 years. In the 1930s, the town was cut off from the greater St. While the town was abandoned, the area was never completely demolished. The town was evacuated during the 1940s for the Weldon Spring Ordnance Works, which processed uranium and manufactured dinitrotoluene and trinitrotoluene. I’d highly recommend checking the area out if you’re nearby. Of all the ghost towns in Missouri, Times Beach has one of the wildest stories. Many people left behind their homes, possessions, and way of life. Times Beach’s mayor, Marilyn Leistner, says that she has questions about the evacuation. Residents connect through social media sites and hold reunions. Today, despite the ominous news, the spirit of Times Beach remains. This park is easily accessible from I-44, exit 266. In 1999, it opened a historical museum on the site and preserved several Times Beach homes. The Missouri state government cleared the town of its toxic waste and added a Route 66 State Park. It is estimated that Times Beach once numbered more than two thousand people.

Despite the dust, residents continued to live in Times Beach. When a major flood hit the town, the poison spread to water supplies and natural groundwater. Residents had hired someone to spray a dust suppressant on the roads without knowing he was spraying waste oil and dioxin. In 1982, the town of Times Beach, Missouri, suffered from the worst environmental disaster in US history.
