George Washington Carver Park

Urban exploration in Springfield, Missouri
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RedRook
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George Washington Carver Park

Post by RedRook »

37°11'53.24"N 93°14'51.13"W

http://binged.it/1LHoYLl

I'm just curious if anyone knows if there is a reason for a park without a playground that you can't reach. You can park at the church and walk the path to someone's back yard, but why is this there? It seems kind of pointless to have public land surrounded on all sides by private land.
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Re: George Washington Carver Park

Post by Nicotti »

According to the Green County GIS that property is full of sinkhole depressions. 2 giant ones are considered part of the flood plain. The city probably bought it cause it's unsuitable for development.

Like they've been doing along the other flood plains.
More online investigation than onsite exploration these days.

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RedRook
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RE: George Washington Carver Park

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Yeah, that makes sense. That whole neighborhood is full of sinkholes though. There's a couple areas it looks like they missed, but there does seem to be a pattern of no buildings over the scariest looking areas. It makes me really wonder what is going on under ground there. My best guess is that it starts to come back out at Jone's Spring. I get the feeling if that cave had an easier entrance, the cave there could potentially be large.
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Re: George Washington Carver Park

Post by BROUSER »

Used to live on E. Monroe and in that area and one night went roaming around that park. Didn't have a flashlight, but I did have a girl with me. Almost as good.
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Re: RE: George Washington Carver Park

Post by Nicotti »

RedRook wrote:Yeah, that makes sense. That whole neighborhood is full of sinkholes though. There's a couple areas it looks like they missed, but there does seem to be a pattern of no buildings over the scariest looking areas. It makes me really wonder what is going on under ground there. My best guess is that it starts to come back out at Jone's Spring. I get the feeling if that cave had an easier entrance, the cave there could potentially be large.
uh, some place there are GIS layers for dye traces done in Springfield sinkholes... I'm not sure where that info resides though.
More online investigation than onsite exploration these days.

“My dear fellow, who will let you?”
“That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”
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Nemophilist
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Re: George Washington Carver Park

Post by Nemophilist »

This one has stormwater drainage, watershed and watershed subbasin layers:
http://maps.springfieldmo.gov/publicviewer/

This sounds interesting too.
"The Sinkhole layer has been removed from the Geographic Data Viewer for review and updating with LiDAR data. Any questions about sinkholes should be directed to Stormwater Engineering at 417-864-1901"
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RedRook
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Re: George Washington Carver Park

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Nemophilist wrote:This one has stormwater drainage, watershed and watershed subbasin layers:
http://maps.springfieldmo.gov/publicviewer/

This sounds interesting too.
"The Sinkhole layer has been removed from the Geographic Data Viewer for review and updating with LiDAR data. Any questions about sinkholes should be directed to Stormwater Engineering at 417-864-1901"
I eventually found the sinkhole/spring/dye pack data on GeoStrat. You just have to bring up the right combinations of maps on top of each other.

It's a shame the public viewer doesn't give box drains outside of city limits. They even seem to be purposely cutting the data as you can see pipes disappear at the boundary. Looking over dimensions of some drains I knew about, I noticed something odd. Very specific businesses seem to extend the city limits to new boundaries where all their neighbors are still in the county. Walmart neighborhood markets near the border is one example. These also magically extend the storm drain information. It makes me wonder if businesses have the option of choosing whether their property will be inside or outside the limits, and why would they choose to be inside the limit.
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Re: George Washington Carver Park

Post by jammer_smith »

Went out there a few days ago. Seems like a small and unremarkable patch of ground. Nice place to let your dog off the leash. Seems like that's about it.
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RedRook
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RE: George Washington Carver Park

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure at this point that if there is something huge, it's inaccessible. That patch of Springfield just interests me with the large number of sink holes compared to elsewhere.
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RE: George Washington Carver Park

Post by paul06660 »

Ive heard the place was once used for toxic waste dumping several decades ago.
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RE: George Washington Carver Park

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I'm pretty sure they would mark this if they knew about it. They've marked all of the hazardous lead and zinc east of there. The studies I've found about the Jordan Creek branches shows copper, lead, and zinc being the main pollutants, but these are runoff pollutants mainly coming from modern pollution in general that can flow from downtown. East of that side of town you have something closer to a dump where old mines were just abandoned. The lead, zinc, and copper containing tailings were just left where the mines were. I'm not aware of a toxic chemical dump other than that unless I'm missing something.
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RE: George Washington Carver Park

Post by Aerohog »

a. Someone wanted credit for creating a park without spending money.

b. Someone is getting out of paying property tax on some land that can't make anything on.

c. They got money for the land and improvements are in the 2023 budget.

But hey, it's better than spending millions on lighting and trails and outdoor fountains and sculpture but not having a tenth of the parking needed for people to use it.
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Re: George Washington Carver Park

Post by Jesta »

Don't mean to drag up old threads but read this awhile back and will answer most questions about that park.

http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/l ... /26048091/
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Re: RE: George Washington Carver Park

Post by gimpface »

RedRook wrote:I'm pretty sure they would mark this if they knew about it. They've marked all of the hazardous lead and zinc east of there. The studies I've found about the Jordan Creek branches shows copper, lead, and zinc being the main pollutants, but these are runoff pollutants mainly coming from modern pollution in general that can flow from downtown. East of that side of town you have something closer to a dump where old mines were just abandoned. The lead, zinc, and copper containing tailings were just left where the mines were. I'm not aware of a toxic chemical dump other than that unless I'm missing something.
Since we're bringing old threads back from the dead, I'd like some more info on these mines. Are these just those old ones off Sunshine East of town (Wolverine, Gem mine, Etc) or is this something else?
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Nicotti
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Re: George Washington Carver Park

Post by Nicotti »

Jesta wrote:Don't mean to drag up old threads but read this awhile back and will answer most questions about that park.

http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/l ... /26048091/
Cool!

New info on old places is always welcome here.
More online investigation than onsite exploration these days.

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“That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”
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