Residents flock to local waterways for summer of 2020

It was a busy summer for the Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers assigned to its Marine Division as they arrested nearly 200 people on the area’s waterways and answered numerous calls for service.

“It was a very busy summer for us; the Current River continues to get more and more boat traffic and swimmers,” said Cpl. Shayne Talburt.

On one occasion, Talburt said, there were 150 to 200 boats lined up along a gravel bar near Doniphan.

“It was the most I’ve ever seen,” Talburt said. “I think COVID had a lot to do with it because everything has been shut down and recreation is one of the best ways to social distance.”

Patrol Sgt. Richie Ayers agreed.

“With COVID, everybody wanted to get outside, and camping and boating were busier than ever” at Wappapello Lake once the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reopened the campgrounds, Ayers said. “… Everything was packed. There was no place to camp; therefore, the water was busier for that” reason.

Lake traffic, Ayers said, “just got busier as the summer went along.”

Plus, Ayers said, the weather has been good “longer this year,” lasting past Labor Day.

Talburt estimated there were “easily over 100 boats” anchored at “the tree,” located out from the dam on Wappapello Lake, on Labor Day.

“That was a lot of boats; I was shocked when I got out there,” Talburt said.

Ayers agreed that was a lot of boats for Labor Day, but “when it’s dry, we’ll have 300 boats out there at the tree.”

Between May 1 and Oct. 1, Talburt said, Marine Division troopers made a total of 188 arrests while patrolling Wappapello Lake and the Current, St. Francis and Black rivers.

“We had five drownings,” as well as responded to “numerous near drownings and medical emergencies on the waterways this summer,” Talburt explained.

Although troopers worked no fatality boat crashes, Talburt said, they worked six, separate vessel crashes.

“We did investigate two, separate leaving the scene vessel crashes on Current River,” he said.

Troopers, Talburt said, also responded to more calls for service than usual.

2020 was not a “high-water season like we normally see,” Talburt said. “In fact, we had a few incidents on the river, the lack of rain caused the river to get pretty low.

“We did have a boat that sank on Current River up near Harry’s Root” after it struck some rocks in the shallow water.

Talburt believes clean-up efforts made this summer by the patrol and U.S. Forest Service helped to make Current River more navigable.

Years of high-water incidents in an area below El Rancho Rio had narrowed that stretch of water, making it difficult for boaters and floaters to safely navigate.

“Clearing the obstacles from the river contributed, I think, to a decrease in drownings and boating crashes,” Talburt said.