Friday, August 24, 2018

After a rainy evening and morning, we left at 10:30am intending to make the best of a rainy and windy day afternoon in St. Louis. Before we left, we got a call from Betsy Tyvoll (friends from NJ) who lived in St. Louis with husband Stan 20+years ago. Betsy gave us some "tips, tricks and places" advice... very gracious of her to call...

which we really appreciated. We walked to Gateway Arch National Park (at the Jefferson National Expansion Park, newly "restored" in 2018) and toured the  very good Visitor Center Museum (downstairs) and then took a tram ride to he top at 630 ft. Quite a monument!

We watched a good movie on St. Louis history (French 1764 fur trading post) and how the Arch was made.  We got pictures of the monument at the approximate location on the Mississippi Rover where Lewis and Clark, Lewis' dog Seaman and the Corp landed 1806 on their return journey. It was interesting to note how different the River was then; at their real 1806 landing site, St. Louis had a 30 ft limestone bluff at where the City landing met the Mississippi.  We then walked inside the Park to the Old Courthouse (1839-1862) and toured an incomplete Lewis and Clark Exhibit. It was in this Courthouse where the 1846 Dred Scott Decision was litigated and appealed to the US Supreme Court.  

We had lunch at Calico's Restaurant in downtown St Louis and intend tomorrow to visit the Jefferson Barracks, William Clark's grave site in Bellefontaine Cemetery, Camp Wood Dubois-Lewis and Clark State Historic Site Visitor's Center in IL (where Lewis and Clark and the Corps began their trip UP the Missouri River). If possible, a final visit to the town of St. Charles.