Klondike in Missouri

For more than a year, our friends Mike and Sandy Dixon have been trying to get us out into the far corner of St. Charles County to a treasure of a place they have discovered called Klondike Park. Friday we managed to make the trip. True to its golden name, the goldenrod was in full bloom!

The park is located at the site of a former sand quarry that dates to 1898. It was a source of fine silica sand that was used to make glass at a plant in Alton, Ill., across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. The fishing lake now fills the deepest part of the quarry, where St. Peters sandstone was found 120 feet from the surface. Remnants of this fine silica sand still ring the lake today. The sand is very similar to the fine white "sugar" sand that lines Florida's Gulf Coast beaches.

Mike led Norm and me on a hike around the lake while Sandy read and relaxed in one of the picnic shelters in the park. Then we drove to the park headquarters and Mike, Norm and I hiked up a steep hill to the top of the park overlook.

The exposed top of this hill shows the upper layers of yellow sandstone and other rock that were above the prized silica sandstone layers. We could look out on the valley below, and we were above the Katy Trail. Down below, Sandy was using a field guide to figure out what kind of flowers were growing in front of the Dixon's van in the parking lot!


The quarry closed in 1983, and the area was developed into today's park, which opened in 2003. We enjoyed spending this beautiful late-summer/early autumn day with these dear friends. We also ate lunch in Washington, Mo., stopped at Centennial Farms in Augusta and picked up apples, honey, apple butter and three perennial plants to take home, mementoes of a golden afternoon.