On December 14, 2005, the Upper Reservoir of the Taum Sauk Pump Storage Plant failed by overtopping during the final minutes of one of its pumping cycles. As a result, the reservoir’s 4,300 acre-feet volume of stored water was released from a 656-foot-wide breach in 25 minutes, traveling down Proffit Mountain toward the Black River with a peak discharge of 273,000 cfs. Before it reached the river and flowed into the Lower Reservoir where it was entirely contained, the flood destroyed 281 acres of Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park and ripped the superintendent’s home from its base. By chance alone, loss of life was averted and only four people sustained injuries as a result of the Upper Reservoir failure. However, estimates of the destruction and property damage caused by the failure and ensuing flood have reached $1 billion.

As you can see above, there was quite the flood at Johnson Shut-Ins.  Jason’s mentioned it a few times since we’ve been together but until now I’d never actually been there. The area where the water ripped trees out of the ground and scattered boulders around is called the scour and today’s hike was the scour trail.