GODFREY - The Blue Pool area, a mile outside the city limits of Alton, going toward Grafton is a place that has been surrounded by rumors and myths of the years.
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Today, as reported previously in Riverbender.com, the Blue Pool area on The Nature Institute property continues to be a source of kids trespassing, although it is completely restricted and considered extremely dangerous.
The Nature Institute Executive Director Angela Moan visited bird watchers across the highway from Blue Pool on Thursday morning when Riverbender.com caught up with her. She was explaining to the bird watchers and the website that recently some youths were spotted around the 6 p.m. range up on the ledges above Blue Pool.
Moan explained because of rockslides, the area is extremely unsafe and it is a trespassing offense for anyone found on the property. She also reaffirmed that the Blue Pool is not “a bottomless pit."
“There is a definite bottom,” she said. “It is filled with debris, trees and rock and is not safe.”
Six people have reported to have died jumping or swimming in the Blue Pool area. The Nature Institute officials said the water is also filled with a variety of snakes. Rumors have surrounded Blue Pool that it contains a full-sized locomotive and mine cars, but that is completely not true, Nature Institute officials have said. The area was filled with trees at the bottom in the 1990s.
The word “blue” for the pool likely comes from the time when the water area was mostly clear and it reflected the blue sky on the calm water, Charles Norman III told Riverbender.com a few months back.
One man who was photographing falcons on the other side pointed and said 70 years ago, he swam in the Blue Pool area a lot when it wasn’t restricted like today. He said he knows today that youth should not be around the area because of the danger involved.
Moan said the boys spotted at Blue Pool the other night were sitting on the ledge several feet above the water, throwing rocks and sticks at birds.
“We have rocks fall off the side of bluffs there all the time,” Moan said. “It is very dangerous.”
Moan encouraged parents to talk with their children about the dangers and how they should stay away from the restricted area.
BELOW IS A VIDEO AND STORY IN A PREVIOUS EXPLORE THE RIVERBEND AT BLUE POOL:
