Blunt: Some Taum Sauk settlement will go toward new state park

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Matt Blunt said Monday he has instructed the Department of Natural Resources to use some of the Taum Sauk settlement money to develop a new state park in Shannon County.

"This will help compensate the citizens of Missouri for the loss of natural resources when the reservoir breach flooded Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park," he said in a statement.

Under a tentative settlement announced last week, St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. will pay $180 million in cash and property to compensate for damage resulting from the Taum Sauk reservoir collapse two years ago.

The new state park along the Current River will be on the site of the former Alton Club, Jerry J. Presley Conservation Education Center, which is currently owned by the Department of Conservation.

The property will be transferred to the Department of Natural Resources next year under a partnership announced earlier this year.

That department had said it would seek supplemental funding through grants and donations to develop the park. But funds from the Taum Sauk settlement will expedite the process.

The Alton Club was constructed in the 1930s as a corporate retreat for the Alton Box Board Co. of Illinois.

The buildings at the site reflect the influence of rustic architecture popular in camp and park buildings in the first half of the 20th century.

The Conservation Department acquired the land in the mid-1990s and has used it for teacher training in conservation and other workshops, but it was generally not open to the public.

The club includes dormitories, a large gymnasium, several other structures and opportunities for tennis, skeet shooting and floating on the river.