93 Flood Traditional Cache
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You are looking for a cammo painted ammo can. Inside you will find the usual items for trade. You should wear your hiking shoes on this one. Please approach from the parking area and stay in the spillway channel. Do not approach from above, there is a nasty drop. You may want to read the logs before starting in on this cache. Park at N39 04.007 W096 53.860
UNCONTROLLED SPILLWAY The Milford Dam was built during the early 1960s to protect the Kansas River Basin. Waters from Milford Lake enter the Kansas River at Junction City, which in turn flows into the Missouri River at Kansas City. The Missouri River then empties into the Mississippi River, which transports Milford Lake waters to the Gulf of Mexico. After holding floodwaters back for weeks at the Milford Dam, and upon reaching a lake elevation 32 feet above normal, the focus on flood protection changed to that of protecting the dam structures. All additional waters, which flowed in, had to be released. On July 19, 1993 the gates in the dam were fully opened to release 22,500 cubic feet of water per second. Rain continued to fall in the area and the lake continued to rise until water began to flow through the uncontrolled spillway. The spillway is called an uncontrolled spillway because it has no tainter gates. The design of the spillway does control the flow of the water, eventually directing it back into the river channel below the dam. The spillway is similar to an overflow drain in a bathtub. Water flows out the spillway to prevent overtopping the dam. For two weeks water flowed through the spillway to a maximum depth of 6 feet. The continuous rush of water removed tons of soil, numerous trees, and a portion of the 244 Spur Highway. Pooling waters from the spillway flow also threatened to damage U.S. Highway 77. To protect the U.S. highway, a culvert was intentionally breached on State Highway 57 to allow the pooling floodwaters to drain back into the Republican River channel. Throughout the entire flood event, the dam performed as designed and held floodwaters back, lessening the downstream flood damage. During our highest release of water through the dam, (22,500 cfs) which lasted for approximately 10 hours, the riverbank channel immediately below the dam suffered some erosion damage. In the winter of ‘96/’97, repairs were made to the damaged channel below the dam. To prevent future damage during extremely high releases, the river channel was dropped 12 feet in elevation by excavation. The removed rock was used to create a berm across the south bank washout. The channel banks were re-graded, re-rocked, and re-grouted.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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