Beardstown, IL – With parties and fundraising, a Beardstown group hopes to apply pressure to the Corps of Engineers.
Christy Bley of the "Friends of Muscooten Bay" says they want the Corps to do two things.
The first is insure that Beardstown's Marina has easy access to the main channel of the Illinois River. The second is to get out some of the silt that has clogged most of Muscooten Bay.
Bley says in he 1960s, the bay was deep enough for boating and a popular alternative to going into the main channel of the river. She describes it as "family friendly" then.
Now, she says the bay is mainly clogged with silt from the Sangamon River. She believes if the Corps were to move the mouth of the Sangamon River farther northward, the silt would go into the Illinois River instead of the bay.
Then, she believes one or two floods would wash the silt out of the bay, leaving it open for boating again.
The Corps moved the mouth of the Sangamon River southward from its natural outlet into the Illinois River around 1960 to help create farmland.
That's when Muscooten Bay was chosen to take the silt washed down by the Sangamon.
The silt has also blocked access from Beardstown's Marina to the river.
The friends group is hosting another awareness party this weekend at the foot of Beardstown's Front Street.