River Relief goes to Yankton

A few notes & thoughts from our recent trip up to Yankton, S.D.
...a clean-up "Away Team" organized by Keep Yankton Beautiful.

by Melanie Cheney

photo by Paul Lepisto

At our rate, the trip from Columbia, MO up to Yankton, S.D. usually requires a 10 hour drive. Hauling a 2 ton, 25-foot plate boat behind you in a driving North wind up in the plains isn't easy. We arrived at the Cottonwoods Campground in Yankton where the temperature had dropped into the 40s, with sustaining winds and bursts up to 40-50 mph. If it wasn't for Soda Popp who had drug his house on wheels behind him all the way from Jeff City, I would have been miserable all night long as the temps dropped down in the 30s and the winds continued to howl!!!

We met up with the KC crew who had arrived a few hours earlier, built a big fire, and discussed a game plan for the clean-up we were working the next morning. Luckily by the time the sun came up, the winds died down, and the sun warmed the 100 volunteers who also showed up bright & early that morning. Apart from the chilly boat ride on the river, it turned out to be a beautiful day!

We used our two plate boats to haul volunteers & trash, & just like that it was over. It was pretty clean up there as this was the 7th annual clean-up on that stretch, and we pretty much just cleaned up after the thoughtless fisherman who enjoy good fishing right below the 1st dam on this beautiful stretch of river. I collected about 1 bag of fishing line & styrofoam bait boxes alone. We ate lunch & headed back to camp.

In the afternoon, the sun shining, & the wind as still as could be, we took a little field trip over the dam to an overlook & trail on the big lake which is really, our river. We didn't walk very far before a little side trail appeared & we followed it to the most unexpected & beautiful beach in the Mid-West I have ever seen! It felt like a scene out of the Goonies or something. Huge chalk bluffs towered over the water, waves lapping at the soft pebbled beach, the sun reflecting into our faces, and we just sat there & soaked it up until our bellies started rumbling. Wishing we could stay for sunset, we headed back for camp.

We had a wonderful evening of camaraderie with our River Relief companions, new & old, we told stories around the campfire, & got a good nights rest before starting the next leg of our adventures.

Highlights from the days ahead included a 3 day & night stay in Ponca State Park (due to continual foul weather) on the Rec River with the Stous', a one day float thru a small stretch of river where I must have seen at least 30 different species of birds, one of which was a scene I'll not forget, Wild Turkey's in their full on courtship spreads trying to lure the females away from the other Toms, and several hikes around the area in search of our favorite Spring mushroom, the Morel. And best of all, the company of old friends cooking together & sitting around a campfire at night was just so nice. This relaxing little "mini" vacation also allowed me to get some good reading done in a wonderful book a friend lent us called "The Whale Warriors", which I highly recommend!

On our way home, we stopped at the Desoto Fish & Wildlife Refuge, an old ox-bow lake that had been cut off from the river with the coolest visitor center I've ever been to. They had excavated an old cargo steam ship and we got to see everything the ship was carrying in it when it went down. It was full of old tools, tonics, clothes, food stuffs, oil lamps, toiletries, you name it! In addition, huge picture windows & viewfinders looked out over the lake. It was still cold & drizzly out, and I only saw one lonely pelican. But it was a great stop on our long trip back to Missouri.

Cleaning up the Rec River!

Yankton Missouri River Clean-up
May 9, 2009
Yankton, S.D.

text by Vicki Richmond - photos by Paul Lepisto, Vicki Richmond and Dave Stous

Yankton, South Dakota, is a special place on the Missouri River. Gavin’s Point Dam, the furthest downstream dam on the Missouri is located here, and the river is allowed to roam across its floodplain on and is not locked into a navigation channel.

This 60 - plus mile section, called the National Recreation River, has the sandbars and snags that we on the channelized portion of the Big Muddy have heard stories of. The Big Muddy isn’t quite so muddy here. Because of the sediment-trapping dams, the water flows clearer. Trophy homes and fishing camps line the banks. Having a dependable flow, and no inputs from aggressive tributaries enables people to live harmoniously beside the river.

Despite being the first city on the lower river, Yankton is not immune to the trash that we see concentrated on the banks and in the drift piles further downstream. Stormwater carries trash for miles and empties this floatable trash right into the Missouri. Dumps, long accepted as a way for families to rid themselves of refuse, still persist.

But there is a special connection to the river in this place. People use the river recreationally in large numbers. Folks are connected to the river in a unique way. It is only natural that people want to lend a hand in keeping it clean.


The MRR crew began showing up on Thursday night. An education festival was planned for Friday, bringing nearly 200 students to the river for some hands on learning. We camped near the dam, on a cut-off oxbow of the river. Our small crew of three fell asleep under the tall cottonwoods with an early start in mind.

Friday’s weather looked iffy as we began set-up of the booths that would entertain and educate students. Rain clouds hovered just to the north and east, making us sure to deploy pop up tents, just in case. The students arrived and began touring learning stations. Everything from climate change to fish was featured in the 10 wonderful displays. Provided with an event passport, students eagerly moved from station to station.

The rain came in just before lunch. Exhibitors and students alike gathered under the shelters in Yankton’s Riverside Park, enjoying a delicious meal.


Shortly after the students departed, MRR crew began showing up in earnest. The skies opened up and the threatening rain came down in sheets. We did as much as we could to stage our gear for the move to the island and headed into town in search of a dry place to wait out the rain storm.

By dinnertime, we’d all arrived- Bill and Ruth, with puppy Saffron (her first clean-up!). Lynne and Ty arrived after a brisk game of Frisbee golf in Omaha. Dave, Fran and Rick arrived with the houseboat in tow after an interesting day of dodging cones through the highways in Iowa. Dave R and Dylan pulled in, Dylan splashing his kayak for an early trip to the island on a hunt for treasures. John and Alex had already been to the island, picking a great camping spot overlooking the town and bell tower. After gathering wood from a hospitable Mary Robb with the help of Paul Lepisto, we made our way as a group to the island that would be our home for the weekend.

The wind howled as we set up our camp. Dinner was on, thanks to Michael, and we set up camp while hunting mushrooms to supplement the feast. A windy night turned into a beautiful day as the skies lightened for a day that promised a clean up haul.

Arriving at the ramp at 7:30, MRR crew went to work getting lifejackets ready and helping with sign-in. Vicki provided the group with a safety briefing, followed by talks from the National Park Service and the clean-up organizers. We took our posts: Vicki to lifejackets, John and Dave to their boats. Volunteers were fitted into PFD’s and headed down the ramp to board boats to be shuttled to clean-up sites.

Our boats come in handy at these events. They are large and we aren’t squeamish about putting really ugly trash into them. The Saskia headed to the site of an old dump of cars where we’d worked before while the Char shuttled volunteers. A call came to bring added muscle to a site full of rebar and metal. The Char headed over with tools and crew for the task.

All in all, over 7 tons of debris was removed on this day. 23 tires made their way to the ramp where volunteers ably loaded trash and scrap into trucks bound for the landfill and the metal recycling facility. Over 300 people took part in this one day effort.

Working on the Rec River has its moments of stress. The water is shallow and our captains kept a careful eye on their propellers.

Working on the Rec River has its moments of pure delight. Endangered interior least terns and piping plovers flew over our camp and greeted us constantly. The sand is warm and plentiful. Morel mushrooms were everywhere.



The MRR crew is most appreciative of the invitation to join this incredible effort. We look forward to being on deck again in 2010!

Thanks to the National Park Service and Lewis & Clark Heritage Trail Foundation for their support of our participation in this clean-up!

Little Hands in the Sand (part deux)

Yankton Missouri River Clean-up

Yankton, S.D.
May 17, 2008

(blogmaster note: last year, Ruthie Moccia wrote a great piece about her encounter with Jordan, a young man who found an ancient tractor wheel on the Yankton 07 clean-up. This May (2008), Ruthie returned to Yankton with us and wrote this piece about her experience. Click here to read Ruthie's post from last year.)

text by Ruthie Moccia. photos by Ruthie Moccia & Melanie Cheney

The ‘08 Yankton cleanup was my first revisit to a cleanup site since joining River Relief two years ago. What made the long road trip most worthwhile this year was reuniting with Jordan who accomplished the amazing last year by persistently digging around an enormous iron tractor wheel until it was completely unearthed and could be claimed by the trash tally.

During registration I spotted Jordan and his two young brothers dressed in their heather blue '08 volunteer tee shirts. Instead of aimlessly exploring the water's edge, the boys were eagerly awaiting trash bags and gloves and it appeared Jordan had also invited several friends along to participate. Their excited faces made me proud to be the one to hand them the necessary items and send them off down the ramp.

Jordan and his buddies check out a bike they found at the cleanup this year. photo by Melanie Cheney.

Later, when I sensed my cleanup crew’s boat was nearing last year's campground I also realized that the water level was too low to dock there. I needed to see that place again. I deboarded in the sandy mud and hiked toward it by keeping the Benedictine bell tower on the other side of the river always within my view. I didn’t know the way exactly, but clearly that tower with it's marvelous tones was a landmark for me. I would know immediately when I'd reached the exact location of last year’s campsite by the view across the river.

Suddenly, unmistakable familiar shapes of landscape brought back the memories. The flat sandy beach at the river's edge where the water had risen overnight to cover our cookware, a triangle of driftwood logs where we sang hilarious songs and played music around the fire, a flat space between two cedars where I had pitched my borrowed tent, the tip-top grassy edge of a dune I had climbed to scavenge an abandoned bracelet made of wooden beads and twine. It was a wonderfully nostalgic moment.

Overall my warmest memory of Yankton, however, is Jordan. What is it about a friendly face in a far away place? I threw the bead bracelet away many months ago, but Jordan's excited smile will stay with me.

Here's Jordan in 2007 excavating the old wheel he found. photo by Ruthie Moccia.

Goat Island Trash Tally!

Goat Island Clean-up

May 16, 2008
Missouri National Recreational River

photos by Paul Lepisto and Melanie Cheney

On May 16, a crew of 23 River Relief diehards joined up with the US Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service and the Izaac Walton League for a unique clean-up of Goat Island, a no-mans-land of sorts located between Yankton and Vermillion, S.D. on the unchannelized Missouri National Recreational River.
The mission of the clean-up was to rid the island of the remains of a cattle operation run on the island a couple decades ago. From barbed wire to stock tanks and cattle panels, we rounded up the junk and shipped it off the island by boat.
We'll post more stuff here about this fascinating place as we have time to do so, but in the meantime check out our tally below and PLEASE check out MRR crewmember Dylan Lehrbaum's awesome blog (with awesome photos) about the adventure at:http://dylbug.blogspot.com/2008/05/yankton-clean-up.html

Here's some more photos - https://www.flickr.com/photos/riverrelief/sets/72157613166079718/

Goat Island Trash Tally!
Scrap Tons – 1.5 tons
Landfill Trash – approx .5 tons

10 55 gallon plastic barrels
½ 55 gallon plastic barrel retrofitted as a toilet
1 55 gallon metal drum
1 recliner
¾ of a sofa
332 feet of wooden snow fence
(at least) 300 yards of triple strand barbed wire (every piece on the island!)
47 16X8 foot metal fence sections
19 curved corral fence sections
49 t-posts

1 chaise lounge lawn chair
2 tire rims
6 tires
1 8-foot diameter, 3-foot deep stock tank
2 refrigerator doors
5 sheets of roofing tin
2 car batteries
7 grills
12 sheets of misc plywood

Yankton, S.D. Clean-up - May 19, 2007

Little Hands in the Sand
text and photos by Ruthie Moccia

Destination Yankton, S.D. The 8 hour drive all day Friday in our van was reminiscent of a comedy club. Jokemeisters Karpowicz, Barrow, and Nigh continued with hilarity throughout the weekend at jam sessions around the bonfire. Add a couple of drums, guitars, a washboard, and other impromptu instruments (wire whisk brushing across the plastic feathers of our heron mascot) and you get some really cool sounds. Original music and lyrics were inspired by the Gilligan’s Island theme song audibly entwined with House of the Rising Sun punctuated by the voice of James Brown commenting effusively on strengths and weaknesses of the amazing riverbed mussel.

Racin’ Dave had staked out our campsite extraordinaire, a sandy island across the river from Benedictine steeple Caroline bells. Not a seasoned camper, I was in ecstasy to have sand instead of mud between my toes, witness the clarity and “swimability” of the Missouri River at Yankton, dine on exquisite food, and sense an atmosphere of safety and tolerance from much more experienced companions.

And that was just getting and being there.

Saturday morning we filtered through the Yankton volunteers over coffee and donuts introducing ourselves (for the record, Yanktonians drink their coffee black not even bothering to set out cream and sugar), happy to learn Yanktonians were genuinely grateful we had come to help with the cleanup. We arranged ourselves 2 to a boat in order to provide as much individual support as possible.

Karpowicz and I sat in our boat watching Yankton volunteers file by on the dock as a thirty-something dad approached toting 3 adorable sons. “We want you in our boat!” I hollered, and they complied. Just a few minutes earlier I had taken photos of them traipsing across the green in their newly acquired ankle length tees. I had become enchanted with the 3 of them.

But ultimately my heart was whisked away by the oldest most serious of the boys, 9 year old Jordan, who did not stop digging until he unearthed an ancient iron tractor wheel from the sand. Who knew how much time elapsed while he and I dug with sticks and rocks? We made timid conversation. We talked a little about the things we believed, about the things we had experienced, and even some about the river.

We had dug past the water table when a crewmate finally returned with a real shovel capable of removing real loads of sand. Finally, we were able to comprehend the wheel. It was 4 feet in diameter with double rows of thick decaying spokes, at least a foot wide where the rubber would have met the road. It took a line of guys on a rope to get that sucker out of it’s sandy hole and another couple of guys to roll it along the water’s edge into our boat.



Jordan posed in front of his find as we motored to the dock. It took 3 inmates to pick it up and load it into a trash truck.

I’m soon sending Jordan a certificate with blue ribbon attached. I’ll call it the “persistence” award. The certificate will say, “May all you have patience for never disappoint you.”

Yankton, S.D. Clean-up - May 19, 2007

Kissing the Dam
by Vicki Richmond
photos by Vicki Richmond, Jen Courtney, Melanie Cheney and Wayne Werkmeister

The Gavin’s Point dam is a strangely pink structure that screams steel and power. On one side is Lewis and Clark Lake, the other frames the beginning of the 811 miles to St. Louis and the Mississippi. It is the last dam to harness the power of the Missouri River and pass it along to the City of Yankton, SD, and other towns hungry for electricity. The dam itself delineates one of the most untouched stretches of the Big Muddy. One side of the river is South Dakota, the other Nebraska.

The “Relief”, as the Yankton locals called us, arrived on a clear Thursday evening, camping in a beautiful hardwood grove overlooking the first mile of the unchannelized Missouri. This campground is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers and is used for those giving service hours to the Park. Camp was hastily thrown together as we prepared to dine at Murdo’s, a bar and grill on the Nebraska side that sits overlooking the river. We explored the nearest cove on the lake and looked up at the dam from the boatramp.

In the spillway below the dam, huge paddlefish patrol the waters, becoming dolphins in the moonlight. The character of the river is different. This is the river we Missourians have heard fearful stories of. Sandbars and snags show where we see only water. We entered the braided channel carefully, Captains Racin’ Dave and Steve piloting us carefully around trees and in the shallow water.



I can hear the voice of River Relief icon Charlotte Overby in my head “It’s not appropriate to punish ourselves for having fun at work!” And work it would be. Two days of trash hauling.

Our task Friday was a noble one. We put our new, yet unnamed, plate boat 490 and the trusty Saskia in the water and boated down to the Yankton ramp. Docks and tanks had littered a privately owned stretch of the river since the 97 flood. The private landowners, City of Yankton staff and the Yankton Trust Unit of the SD Department of Corrections service workers had spent a week cutting and stacking the metal and Styrofoam to be accessible by our boats. Our job was clear. Get those piles.

It is said that many hands make light work. Waiting crews loaded the metal and styrofoam into from the National Parks Service and Missouri River Relief boats and an incredible seven and a half tons later, our crews headed back upstream for a sandbar lunch. A truly great effort was made simple by the hard work of smart planners who had volunteers, trucks and heavy equipment ready to work.

One trash haul down. One trash hauling day to go.

Saturday our two boats arrived at the Yankton ramp with fourteen hard core River Relief Crew. We arrived to a well-oiled sign-in machine. Paul Hedren who supervises the National Parks Service efforts along the National Recreational River gave a brief talk, the Yankton County Emergency Management staff presented as on-site safety message and Mayor Curt Bernard of Yankton SD thanked volunteers.

Two hundred fifty volunteers were fueled with donuts, outfitted in lifejackets and loaded in to 20 boats. The boats scattered volunteers along 12 miles of the river. Our boats headed to the dam, the farthest site possible.



Steve carefully piloted the Saskia upriver, with a crew of girls from Vermillion High School. Racin Dave, following tradition, kissed the dam with the bow of our boat as we marveled at the structure above us. We donned gloves and headed to the shoreline to pick up the trash accumulated along the rip rapped banks.


After a good cleaning of the rip rap below the dam with the help of the fisherman, who were thrilled with our efforts, our crew began a slow trip back down river, scanning the banks for trash more to our liking- the things that are heavy and bulky. An appliance dump caught Racin Dave’s eye. After a quick survey, we pulled what we could and noted that the site requires some different equipment. Cutting torches will be needed to clear this area of trash. We again boarded the boats.

Sharp eyes quickly spotted a tractor tire. Easy work for our motivated students. The tire was efficiently loaded into the Saskia and tire thrones constructed for comfortable seating. We continued to scan the banks, with the new eyes of the students on the lookout for more trash.


A shout. “Tire on the high bank!” Ben leapt from the boat to scramble up the bank. More experienced trash getters shared knowing looks. One tire sitting like that means only one thing. A tire dump.

Sure enough, Ben glanced from the bank to our boat. “Lots of tires here. Maybe 20, 30, 40…”. We smiled. This is what River Relievers love. Getting a big haul. Doing some real good.

We set ourselves in a line, passing tires hand to hand, loading the boat as the National Parks Service headed across the river in our direction. “The trucks are getting ready to go, you guys are the last in” Tyler called. As he pulled closer and was able to see the contents of our boat his eyes widened. We were simply “full up” with tires and trash. We loaded another 20 tires into his boat and headed slowly back downstream to the ramp, where loaders awaited our booty for the day.



As our two (last in) boats approached the ramp we heard gasps from those on shore. The adrenaline rush of a 50-tire load soon eclipsed the lagging energy of the ramp crew. The Saskia was quickly unloaded as the stories of the day were called out across the ramp. Our fifty tire load was the perfect ending to a perfect clean up.