A refuge is a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble. It can be something providing shelter or an institution providing safe accommodations. Even though refuge is made available, it isn't always what it seems to be all the time. But it is always good that it is there.
As a Master Naturalist with the Lake of the Ozarks Chapter in Missouri, I had the opportunity to travel to northeast Missouri to visit Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge near Mound City with a small group of naturalists and my husband came along. Our initial interest was to observe the snow geese migration. My husband and I had many good memories of watching the snow geese descending in spirals in the early years of our marriage during the 1970's. We lived in western Iowa just north of the De Soto Bend National Wildlife Refuge which is part of the same system. We knew it was just the beginning of the migration period in mid-October but we were eager to see some impressive activities early on. Because of unusual warm weather, it is likely the most impressive display to observe would be the migration period at the end of November. So we made the best of it at this time and enjoyed a 3-mile hike along the Loess Hills Trail and a 10-mile drive around the protected wildlife area. The 2-day event involved a 6-hr drive one way on Friday and coming home late on Saturday with an option to check out sites such as Excelsior Springs on the way. We opted to have a nice long lunch and early check-in at our motel in St. Joseph instead. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express located on the road to our next day activity which was a tour of a wind farm. That interesting event is the subject of my next blog article. It was impressive!
We arrived at the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge about 3:00 and checked out the information available at the main building. The hike started behind the building and was quite vigorous! The view at the top was grand and we could see most of the 10-mile area we were going to drive next. We ended up driving it twice and left five minutes before the gates closed a half hour after sunset at 7:30 p.m. I have put together a musical photo album below and found the time to be enjoyable even without the spiraling snow geese this time around. Maybe we will get a chance to come back in a few weeks and be more impressed if one can still capture the awe from the first time such a site is observed. This location is just off I-29 which is our route to visit family back in Iowa. The time of year the geese typically use the refuges is during bad weather and we are not likely to be traveling those times unless we have too. No time taken to stop but now maybe we will sometime.
December 9-11, 2016 Update: We did have an unexpected trip to Iowa for a family funeral and took time on the way there and back to drive the auto-tour around Squaw Creek. It was certainly more active with thousands of snow geese in V-formations swirling and spiraling in a great air show! It was awesome and a good balance from the sadness of a funeral trip. Here is a more current video of the snow geese in the water:
Except for traveling to Iowa, I had not had much opportunity to know this area. On this trip, I was reflecting on days gone by sparked by the memories of the snow geese so many years ago. I saw the sign for Conception Junction, Missouri. Memories came to mind from the weekend of September 15-17, 2000 when I stayed at nearby Conception Abbey with a large group of women. There was an event put on at that time by the Missouri Department of Conservation as part of their Becoming an Outdoor Woman Program. Conception Abbey is a Benedictine monastery. The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception started in 1880 and dedicated in 1891. It is the spiritual center of Conception Abbey and Conception Seminary College. Basilica, a title meaning royal house, was bestowed on the church in 1941 by Pope Pius XII due to the intense spiritual life that exists within it and to the pilgrimages that take place within and around it. It is one of 45 in the United States.
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| Amazing remodel done the year before I was there! |
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| Becoming an Outdoor Woman (BOW) Group |
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| Beti with a Belly Boat (Workshop) |
It was a time for personal and spiritual growth. It was the first year of my "empty nest" with my youngest child out of the home just a few months after her 2000 graduation. It was a time for serious pursuit of my conservation interests. It was a time to reconnect with my Catholic roots. The day before on September 14, 2000, the Reverend Donald E. Powers passed away. I remember being so sad. He was a priest from the Jefferson City Diocese that I became close to in recent years at our St. Bernadette's Church in Hermitage. Being at Conception Abbey at this time felt like a good refuge. It was a refuge from my job and the world for a weekend. It was wonderful! The sessions I signed up to take included fly-tying, archery/bow hunting, belly boating, and fly-fishing. Terry Tanner with the MDC was my main instructor. There was a wonderful dinner on the last night with 12 different samplings of wild game elegantly served by the young seminary men. In between events I could walk in the monastery and pray or just sit and listen to the chanting which was frequent. It was truly a refuge and I could understand how attractive the life could be. I was full of joy by the end of the weekend! I was sure I would come back to this beautiful place!
Then my memories went to the dark times in June 2002 when this place I thought of as a refuge became known as the Deception in Conception. There was murder and misconduct at this Benedictine Abbey. A shooter killed 2 monks then himself at Conception Abbey in June 2002 which prompted a decision by leadership whether to disclose that they had knowledge of sexual misconduct by at least one member of its monastic community. They misled authorities.
I found my true Refuge.
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