Highway 59 Woes

With a fix for the washed-out segment of Missouri Highway 59 several months away, campground owners are beginning to think about how they are going to manage float trips this summer.

Highway 59 has been closed between Ginger Blue and Shady Beach since the late December flood washed out a 500-foot-long segment of the road. In January, the Missouri Department of Transportation estimated a fix would take between six and eight months, cutting well into the camping and floating season.

"It's (Highway 59) closed just north of our campground," said Bobbie Adamson, owner of Shady Beach Campground. "We either have to go around the back way and take H Highway and go into Noel or go on Mount Shira Road."

She explained the latter is not a very good option. "It's a one-lane, dirt road, and it's not a good road. It's very curvy."

Adamson said there hasn't been much time yet to think about how to address the problem of the road being out. So far, cleaning up flood damage has been priority.

"It's the worst we've ever seen. We had almost five feet in the store. We had water in all the cabins on the campground. It's going to be a couple or three months (cleaning up). It just totally tore up the campground."

She said Shady Beach is not alone in having to reroute along Highway H. Other campgrounds face the same problem.

"Just about all of them along the river use 59, so we're going to have to stop and rethink how we do this. Big Elk at Pineville pick up at our place. Two Sons put in up river and then go down. Everybody's going to be trying to figure this one out, because H Highway can't handle that much traffic. It's going to be tough all over figuring out how we're going to do it. It's going to be a challenge. For that much traffic to be going down Main Street in Noel, that's going to be interesting. You put that many buses carrying canoe trailers on Main Street, and you're going to have some problems. It's going to be a problem that's going to have to be addressed by most of the outfitters."

John Poynor, owner of River Ranch Resort, also saw historic flooding during the recent high-water event. He said he and his crew just finished gutting buildings and are starting to rebuild.

"For us it's going to add a lot more miles to taking somebody out on the river, not being able to go on 59," he said. "Most of our business comes from the north, so they come in on 59. Now they'll have to come in on H."

In addition to taking Highway H, River Ranch will have to contend with a detour around a turn that is too steep and sharp for a bus.

"We can't turn on Elk Springs Road with a bus, so you have to travel further down H to our eight-mile set in, turn around and go back to our five-mile set in on Elk Springs Road. And when we leave the five-mile, we'll have to go back to the eight-mile because we can't turn up the hill onto H Highway.

"You combine that with all the extra traffic on the road, and it's not going to be a good situation. We're having a lot of truck traffic on H -- which I don't think H was a designated truck route -- but they seem to be using it," he said.

It all boils down to more gas costs, more labor and more inconvenience for customers, Poynor said.