CLOSING OF PARK QUARRY A WISE DECISION OF STATE

For more than 40 years an abandoned rock quarry on the eastern edge of Trail of Tears State Park has been a popular gathering spot for young people.

The water-filled quarry offered an isolated spot for swimming and drinking parties, endeavors that don't mix. These gatherings sometimes resulted in serious injuries to people when they fell from the steep face of the quarry or dove from its face, striking jagged rocks above or below the surface of the water.

With so many young people having been seriously hurt there over the years, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources acted wisely in deciding to prohibit future entry to the quarry. No-trespassing signs were posted last week at the bottom of a trail that leads down a steep bluff to the railroad tracks that run by the quarry and at various points along the tracks in hopes of keeping people out of the quarry. Park rangers said trespassers will be cited if they enter the quarry.

Park Superintendent Greg Henson said that in the past seven years an average of one serious-injury accident has occurred at the quarry each year. Because it is so isolated, victims of accidents often must wait an hour or longer for help to arrive, thereby risking additional complications from their injuries.

A second threat to those who walked the two-mile stretch of Burlington Northern tracks that lead from Wescoat Marina northward to the quarry was speeding trains. The railroad long has urged that people stay off the tracks in fear that someone would be struck by a train. With the sharp bends and steep bluffs along the tracks, it is difficult to hear a train approaching at 50 or 55 mph. Some people have almost been struck by trains.

Liability to both the state and the railroad also were considered in the department's decision to put the tracks and quarry off limits. But the overall concern for the safety of park visitors was paramount in the decision.

With dangers looming in every direction, the closing of the quarry was long overdue. With rigid enforcement of the no-trespassing rule, the quarry's closing should at last put an end to accidents like those that so many young people have been involved in over the years.