Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center
Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center
Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center
4
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Sunday
12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
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4.0
37 reviews
Excellent
13
Very good
12
Average
7
Poor
1
Terrible
4
AmarilisVos
Jabbeke, Belgium2,481 contributions
Jun 2024 • Couples
We visited this center on June 18. There is free parking next to the center. You can watch an introductory film about the activities on this site. The center uses information boards to explain the various activities and how to clean up the site. Outside you can step on top of the storage cell and see the surrounding area. They have recreated part of the site with plants from the prairie.
Written 18 July 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Droth
7 contributions
Mar 2023 • Family
This is a pretty awesome experience. If you are in the area, please take it in and budget yourself at least 1-2 hours. This is a humbling experience about how bad and how good people can treat the landscape.
There's a great video on YouTube by Dark5 about this site. Watch it before you go.
There's a great video on YouTube by Dark5 about this site. Watch it before you go.
Written 20 March 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Bill K
10 contributions
Jan 2023
A brand new center has replaced the old one. An interesting spot with a lot of WWII history. The new center has meeting rooms, class rooms and covers a lot more area. On the other hand, I think the old center had more artifacts of the area. A good history lesson, especially for people that live, or have lived, in St. Charles county.
Written 24 January 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dennis S
Saint Charles, MO17 contributions
Oct 2021
Uranium tailing processing. Cost them hundreds of millions to dig up and clean up. They didn't know what to do with the area then, so they made it a park. The adjacent high school, Francis Howell HS, is where all the students are called "glow worms." Ummm....NO. Why the hell would you ever go here???
Written 18 October 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
LondonPontac
St. Albans, UK336 contributions
Nov 2013 • Couples
We drove past this place many times on our way to wineries along the Missouri River. It’s in a state park, attractive countryside with bike and hiking trails, lake and ponds, grasslands and woods.
We thought we should take time to see what the area offered and stop at the Interpretive Centre and find out about the spring. On one of our last days in the region we pulled into the car park and were puzzled that that the signs said it was operated by the Department of Energy. Perhaps the stone mound we’d seen from the road was a dam...
Entering the Interpretive Centre it seemed it wasn’t about nature and springs, streams and lakes. Completely puzzled by now I asked the helpful lady and gentleman at the entry desk what on earth we’d come to. I was given a brief explanation and taken to a screen where they played a short film that gave the details.
When, in 1941, the USA found itself dragged into WWII by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s declaration of war it needed to urgently manufacture explosives. An area of Missouri near St Louis with good road, rail and river links — this place — was identified for a huge manufacturing plant for high explosives. Problem was that there were three towns in the selected area. The unfortunate inhabitants were given just one month to move and if they couldn’t transport their houses away these were burned. Manufacture quickly started and the site grew.
Later the plant processed material for atomic weapons. When it came time to decommission the site it was a dangerously toxic area with unlabelled and unknown atomic waste, polluted water and soil.
When the clean up finished, dangerous and radioactive material was entombed in a highly secure facility and buried under an enormous 45 acre mound of grey-white boulders.
As I approached this gigantic stone mound it reminded me of the mysterious European stone-age burial mounds, such as New Grange in Ireland
I walked up a path to the top, climbing steps and a slope to stand 75 feet above the ground and look to the horizon in all directions. There are seats and interpretive panels at the top.
The mound and its chamber underneath are designed to keep their lethal contents safe for one thousand years. But all the same there are constantly monitored ground water sensors along the Katy Trail along the Missouri River some miles south to detect should there be leakage from the site.
I couldn’t help but wonder at such a distant time as 1,000 years. History suggests that the DofE will not still be monitoring, that the USA will not be, and that the very language on the warning signs will not be understood. And if some future treasure hunter or archaeologist should interpret that it is death to open the mound, will they take as much notice as the tomb robbers did in Egypt’s Valley of Kings who ignored similar death warnings to plunder tombs of pharaohs?
The Interpretive Centre is excellent, though its story is depressing. The DofE have done a good job — check the land as you walk to the mound for a replanted prairie with wild flowers and native plants with name boards. Climb the mound for a tremendous view.
The pharaohs’ built pyramids to hold their mortal remains safe for their eternal life. This version is a mound of stones entombing death.
If you’re passing, then do stop and visit
We thought we should take time to see what the area offered and stop at the Interpretive Centre and find out about the spring. On one of our last days in the region we pulled into the car park and were puzzled that that the signs said it was operated by the Department of Energy. Perhaps the stone mound we’d seen from the road was a dam...
Entering the Interpretive Centre it seemed it wasn’t about nature and springs, streams and lakes. Completely puzzled by now I asked the helpful lady and gentleman at the entry desk what on earth we’d come to. I was given a brief explanation and taken to a screen where they played a short film that gave the details.
When, in 1941, the USA found itself dragged into WWII by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s declaration of war it needed to urgently manufacture explosives. An area of Missouri near St Louis with good road, rail and river links — this place — was identified for a huge manufacturing plant for high explosives. Problem was that there were three towns in the selected area. The unfortunate inhabitants were given just one month to move and if they couldn’t transport their houses away these were burned. Manufacture quickly started and the site grew.
Later the plant processed material for atomic weapons. When it came time to decommission the site it was a dangerously toxic area with unlabelled and unknown atomic waste, polluted water and soil.
When the clean up finished, dangerous and radioactive material was entombed in a highly secure facility and buried under an enormous 45 acre mound of grey-white boulders.
As I approached this gigantic stone mound it reminded me of the mysterious European stone-age burial mounds, such as New Grange in Ireland
I walked up a path to the top, climbing steps and a slope to stand 75 feet above the ground and look to the horizon in all directions. There are seats and interpretive panels at the top.
The mound and its chamber underneath are designed to keep their lethal contents safe for one thousand years. But all the same there are constantly monitored ground water sensors along the Katy Trail along the Missouri River some miles south to detect should there be leakage from the site.
I couldn’t help but wonder at such a distant time as 1,000 years. History suggests that the DofE will not still be monitoring, that the USA will not be, and that the very language on the warning signs will not be understood. And if some future treasure hunter or archaeologist should interpret that it is death to open the mound, will they take as much notice as the tomb robbers did in Egypt’s Valley of Kings who ignored similar death warnings to plunder tombs of pharaohs?
The Interpretive Centre is excellent, though its story is depressing. The DofE have done a good job — check the land as you walk to the mound for a replanted prairie with wild flowers and native plants with name boards. Climb the mound for a tremendous view.
The pharaohs’ built pyramids to hold their mortal remains safe for their eternal life. This version is a mound of stones entombing death.
If you’re passing, then do stop and visit
Written 24 November 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Virginiatravelerstwo
Arlington162 contributions
Oct 2011 • Couples
Leave it to the Department of Energy to make a tourist site of a toxic dump. It started life (or death) as a munitions plant during World War II. The Atomic Energy Commission -- one of the forerunners of the Department of Energy -- took it over in the mid-1950s to process uranium, adding radioactivity to the toxic sludge. Then the Army had plans to produce Agent Orange defoliants there. The whole thing became a Superfund site in the 1980s. They buried the stuff under 75 feet of dirt and built a viewing platform on top of it, with picnic tables and hiking trails. The Visitors' Center explains how safe the site is now. It is less than a mile from the water supply for 70,000 people and from the Francis Howell High School. Wear your lead underwear.
Written 15 November 2011
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
bojojoti
Kansas130 contributions
Sept 2013 • Family
Weldon Spring has an interesting history. It was once the world's largest explosives manufacturing factory. By the time World War II ended, the factory had produced more than 700 million pounds of TNT. About a decade later, Weldon Spring became the site of a uranium ore processing plant--making yellow cake uranium. Almost a decade after that, the government made plans to use part of the uranium processing plant to manufacture Agent Orange. Thankfully, the Vietnam war ended before those plans came to fruition.
The government still used Weldon Spring as training grounds for the troops, and that's how Karl Daubel came to the area. When it was determined that the area needed an environmental clean-up, Karl was asked to oversee the job. It was supposed to be a short-term assignment (back in 1989?), but the effort wasn't completed until 2001. Then, as Karl had a deep knowledge of what had occurred, he was asked to work as the interpreter for the museum. Karl was a great guide. He answered all of our questions (we're an inquisitive lot!) and was interesting.
Karl explained that once the vicinity was remediated, there was more radioactivity in the surrounding areas than at the waste disposal site. The museum had a few artifacts and some interesting diagrams of how the waste was covered in layers to prevent radiation leaks. When we finished with the exhibits, we went outside to view the disposal cell which is an impressive 1,409 feet long, 1,465 wide, and 75 feet tall--covering 45 acres. Access to the top of the hill is easily accessible by stairways and trails, but it is quite the climb.
The government still used Weldon Spring as training grounds for the troops, and that's how Karl Daubel came to the area. When it was determined that the area needed an environmental clean-up, Karl was asked to oversee the job. It was supposed to be a short-term assignment (back in 1989?), but the effort wasn't completed until 2001. Then, as Karl had a deep knowledge of what had occurred, he was asked to work as the interpreter for the museum. Karl was a great guide. He answered all of our questions (we're an inquisitive lot!) and was interesting.
Karl explained that once the vicinity was remediated, there was more radioactivity in the surrounding areas than at the waste disposal site. The museum had a few artifacts and some interesting diagrams of how the waste was covered in layers to prevent radiation leaks. When we finished with the exhibits, we went outside to view the disposal cell which is an impressive 1,409 feet long, 1,465 wide, and 75 feet tall--covering 45 acres. Access to the top of the hill is easily accessible by stairways and trails, but it is quite the climb.
Written 18 July 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sabrina H
1 contribution
Mar 2018 • Friends
I took a trip with my mom to this interpretive center as part of a reserch project Im conductibg for a college course. As someone who now knows the ins and outs of Weldon Spring concerning their involvement in the Manhattan project and the cleanup process afterwards, I can tell you that the info given by this center and its tour guides is sugarcoated at best. They will not tell you of the lasting environmental effects of the chemical plant or the still dangerous levels of uranium and radioactivity in the water and the area. The tour guides are brainwashed into thinking everything is fine while they work day in and day out on a (leaking) nuclear waste site. This is not a place to find the facts. If you want the truth about Weldon Spring you have to find it on your own.
Written 9 April 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sarah R
27 contributions
Feb 2016 • Family
Why you would make this an attraction I will never know. No one should be visiting this, especially not children. This a nuclear waste site. Yes, they say it's safe but who really knows. People are dying because of places like this. No way, is this ok. Do some research before going and really think about it.
Written 21 February 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Family_JL
Tennessee61 contributions
Sept 2014 • Family
If you're into this sort of thing, and you have an hour or two to spare to read through the wealth of information here, this might be an interesting spot. There are a lot of slick, detailed displays in the museum/welcome center that would provide a very extensive explanation of the site to anyone who had the time and the interest level to read them, and the good folks who man the desk are very eager to tell you anything you might ever want to know about it. As a potentially quick stop along the way to somewhere else, though, It might not work for you. The climb up the stairs to the summit of the buried waste was a good way to stretch the legs, but it proved, ultimately, disappointing as far as scenery goes. I suppose what I am attempting to say is: I think this site would be interesting to someone who has an intrinsic interest in the subject, but might come across as somewhat bland to anyone who is simply passing through.
Written 21 September 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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