I was on a weekend campout with a friend years ago at Trail of Tears State Park in Cape Girardeau.
Before we left camp that Sunday, we noticed a conservation natural area on the map called Ball Mill Resurgence near Perryville.
Since we were going home that way, we decided to check it out. We had no idea what was meant by the word resurgence.
But we found out when we got there.
We took Interstate 55 North to Exit 129 and went northeast on Highway 51 to north on Highway 61.
We then went right on Highway V for about 3 miles until we made a right on to County Road 916.
After about a mile we found the Ball Mill Resurgence Natural Area trailhead and a small parking lot on the left.
This is the start of a short three-quarter mile trail that loops past the resurgence.
We read the information sign at the parking lot and found out what a resurgence was.
A resurgence is a sinkhole that ordinarily drains water into an underground stream system but will back up and flow out after a heavy rain.
In other words, sometimes water is going in and other times water is coming out.
During heavy rains, water backs up in this sinkhole and then will overflow into a nearby creek called Blue Spring Branch.
Inside the sinkhole when the water is backing up, it tumbles the rocks around and they eventually become round and ball-like.
This is where the name Ball Mill Resurgence comes from. The local people around here know when the water is flowing out when they hear the loud noise made by the tumbling rocks.
We took the trail from the parking lot into the woods, then down a hill to the resurgence. There was some water in the sinkhole but no water was flowing out.
But there were many of the ball-like rocks all around the sinkhole. There was about a 50 feet tall rock wall on one side and a dry creekbed on the other.
After visiting this natural wonder, we continued on the trail back to the parking lot. I have returned to Ball Mill Resurgence many times since then, especially after a rain.
I was hoping to see the water flowing out of the sinkhole but never have. Some things have changed each time I was there.
County Road 916 was a gravel road and now it is paved. The parking lot that only had two parking spaces now is larger and more surrounding land has been added.
This place exists because of the karst topography of the Perry County area. Karst is a type of landscape where the dissolving of the limestone bedrock has created sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, springs, and other characteristic features.
Perry County has nearly 700 known caves and thousands of sinkholes. In fact, Perry County has the highest density of caves in the state which is about 10 percent of the total number of caves in Missouri.
The 19.7-acre Ball Mill Resurgence was acquired from two adjacent landowners in 1978 by Leo Drey and donated to the L-A-D Foundation.
It was designated as a Missouri Natural Area in 1979. Additional buffering land around the area was acquired beginning in 2007 through the end of 2018 to protect the features of this natural area.
Stream frontage along Blue Spring Branch was added and the entire area became the 551-acre Blue Spring Branch Conservation Area.
This conservation area consists of open fields, forested tracts, several sinkholes, and of course, Ball Mill Resurgence Natural Area.
The area is managed by the Missouri Department of Conservation which has worked to restore species of native grasses in the open fields.
The forest is a mature mixed oak and hickory forest with a healthy plant diversity.
After visiting Ball Mill Resurgence, consider visiting nearby Lithium Springs by continuing going north on County Road 916, then left on County Road 922, then right on County Road 921. The springs are on your right in a white gazebo.
Lithium was first surveyed as a town in 1882 and has a population of 92. The location of the town was determined by two springs which were highly prized on account of their medicinal qualities.
(Dennis Bresnahan can be reached at (314) 868-7297Â or dennisbresnahan@yahoo.com.)
