On my frequent trips between Colorado and Missouri, I often take short detours or side trips that offer relief from the monotony of the Interstate highway. Yesterday, under warm, sunny skies dotted with flocks of migrating cranes, I opted for a visit to Wilson Lake, northeast of Russell, Kansas.
Created by damming the Saline River in 1964, Wilson Reservoir is renowned for its clear, blue water and good fishing. Initially constructed for flood control, water supply and recreation, the lake's waters were found to be too salty for irrigation or home use and debate continues whether desalination or mixing in fresh aquifer water would be feasible; indeed, the use of this reservoir represents just one of many controversies regarding water rights throughout the Western U.S. And, like many other water projects, its creation disrupted a natural river ecosystem to "produce wildlife habitat", a beautiful but unnatural oasis amidst a dry landscape.
Looking past these issues, Wilson Lake and its coves expose scenic bluffs of Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone which lie beneath the Cretaceous Greenhorn Formation; the top layer of the latter group is the Fencepost Limestone, long used to support barbed wire fencing throughout central Kansas. Wilson Lake State Park, on the reservoir's southeast shoreline, was established in 1966; while interesting, it lies adjacent to a large residential development and naturalists should head to Lucas Park, north of the dam, which protects natural landscape along the lake's northwest shore. Yesterday, large rafts of bay ducks (redheads, ring-necks, lesser scaup) drifted on the calm, blue waters, while horned grebes and buffleheads fed closer to shore. Trumpeter swans winter along the inlets of Wilson Lake and, as I witnessed, large flocks of sandhill cranes circle overhead in March, their distinctive calls echoing through the valley.
