The Arch rises above us in an arc, cutting the light blue sky in two. With aching necks we have followed the ever-diminishing trace as it reaches over 630 feet above us. The silver coating reflects the bright early morning light, and behind us the mighty Mississippi river is rushing passed in a 30ft high flood.
It’s Easter 2010, and we’re standing under the Arch of Westward Expansion at St Louis, Missouri, almost at the point that Captains Lewis and Clarke cast off for their three year expedition of the newly purchased lands of the west (the Louisiana Purchase). It was also here, for a few years at least, that the wagon trains departed out across the plains to all points west.
Mara flew out to see her father in South Dakota. I was left at home and work for a week, before I flew out to meet her in Chicago, just before Easter, as I was unable to take more than a few days off. Our initial thoughts were to stay in Chicago – but looking further a field we decided to travel down to Springfield, Illinois - home of Abraham Lincoln - and then St Louis, Missouri, home of the Archway. Our decision was based on not wanting to spend the time just in a city.
We spent the night before Mara left at our friends close to Heathrow, and arrived at Heathrow just after 6am for her (9am) flight. She went into security for departures and I went to work. She arrived in the late evening at Sioux Falls and was meet by her cousin, and driven home, and spent the next week looking after her father and working with her cousin. There was a family get together and a trip to the casino.
I flew from the UK and landed in Chicago and Mara flew in from Sioux Falls within an hour of me. We met at the Hertz car rental - a strange place for a reunion; we then headed down to Springfield, Illinois. The freeway follows or parallels the original route of the famous Route 66, the road that thousands followed in the 1930s depression to escape the dust bowl in the mid-west (it actually runs from Chicago to Los Angeles).
We arrived in Springfield after coming to grips with the local tollways. (I wonder how much money Chicago makes from fleecing foreign tourists. Add that to a new $10 ‘fee’/tax for all US visitors plus all the local and state taxes placed on hotels and cars and you begin to wonder why any tourist would willingly go to the US.)
First thing Thursday morning, we headed downtown to the Lincoln sites. We first entered the Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library. We both felt this was awful. They seem to have out-Disneyed Disney for effects and then deified Lincoln. There was little of substance or history, lots of ‘things’ and sound bites aimed at the 21st century child with a YouTube attention span.
Deciding that we needed history, we walked downtown, past the old courthouse where Lincoln practised and his old law offices, before going into the National Park that his house stands in. This was far more interesting. We had a 30 minute tour of the house followed by a stroll around the restored area. Lincoln was not poor and had a like of ‘modern’ inventions, like wood burning stoves etc. This was where he was during the election for president and then we followed in his footsteps to the railroad station where he left from to go to Washington.
From here we went over to the Frank Lloyd Wright designed house. This was a style of his called Prairie House. Bearing in mind the house is over 100 years old, it still looks fresh today. Indeed the house was built 1902-1905 and was barely 35 years on from the Lincoln house, yet seems 135 years apart. The house is over 19,000 sq ft and includes a bowling alley, organ and furniture designed for the house. We had a tour which took us around the house and showed us the beauty of the design. The history of the house and its owner is varied. Susan Dana Thomas came into her money when her wealthy father and husband died within six months of each other. She spent, in 1902, $60,000 for the house and sold it for $12,000 to a publishing company for offices in 1940, before it passed to the state that now runs it. She had no children; lost her second husband and divorced her third husband and in the 1920s became interested in spiritualism. She moved out from the house in the late 1920s and opened it up for parties, before her death in 1944.
After the FLW house we drove down to St Louis, crossing the Mississippi river and seeing the arch for the first time.
First thing we did on Friday was to leave St Louis and go north across the Missouri river. We headed to the last home of Daniel Boone – frontiersman and all round worthy, or not. First – he did not die at the Alamo (Davy Crockett did); he died in his bed. He was a frontiersman who fought for the British, then supported the revolution and, at the age of 69, accepted an offer to work for the Spanish above St Louis. Granted 850 acres (which he lost when the land grants were annulled after the Louisiana Purchase) he became a Justice and local ‘law’ for the Spanish. The house we visited was actually his son’s, and Daniel with his wife also lived here. The house was built with Indian attacks in mind, having gun ports in the walls and 2 ½ feet thick walls. The very interesting tour goes through out the house and we were the only people on the tour.
We left the house and decided to head for the local wineries. Suffice to say that the California wineries do not need to panic! We visited three and had a small taste in each (coffee and bread at the last one). The local grape seemed to be Norton; which while it smelt nice produced a very dry red without a long lasting flavour. Mara tried a very nice port style wine but not good enough to buy at $29 for a half bottle! Still it was a nice drive along the river.
Leaving here we then headed for the Cahokia mounds. These mounds date from 1000 AD and it is the largest archaeological site in North America. The largest mound has a larger footprint than the great pyramid in Egypt. The site has over 100 identified mounds, contains a woodhenge and a giant sundial and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Part of the site was contained within a two mile long palisade (containing over 20,000 logs) and was probably the largest city in the US until 1900. All this and I’m guessing most if not all the Americans there (and all the non-Americans) would never have heard of the site before. Some of the mounds were used for burials, some as worship sites and the largest as the home of the chief and/or head priest. The largest mound would have taken over 22 million baskets (at 60lbs or 30kg each) to build (baskets – all the Indians had to carry soil). The mounds are only a state park (not a national park) and contain many (but not all) of the mounds – some have been ploughed over, deliberately removed for soil, washed away or built on.
We went through the very comprehensive museum and watched the video, before taking a walk across the site. We went around the mounds and up to the top of the main mound (named Monks Mounds since some French monks set up here for a few years), which is over 100 feet high. It was very windy but warm, and we could see the skyline of St Louis some 10 miles away. The site is huge and we drove between different parts of the site; it also feels unloved in that the site has been built on, had roads built through it and generally neglected.
On Saturday we headed for the Soulard Market, a farmers’ market. It was interesting (if much like most markets), but we were surprised to see live ducks and rabbits for sale – to raise as livestock!
We then headed over to Forrest Park. This was where in 1904 a World Fair and the Olympics were held. Only a few of the buildings remain, used as galleries or museums, while more modern buildings have been added. We first went to the art museum. This is a well laid out building that contains some great impressionist paintings including Monet’s Water Lilies. We then went on the Missouri History museum. There were two great galleries about Charles Lindbergh (including the Nazi connection) and the World Fair; and two other poorly laid our galleries about the general history, which annoyed us given the other good galleries.
Easter Sunday found as at the bottom of the arch looking into a small capsule approx 5ft by 5 ft by 5ft with five seats. I guess the first astronauts had more room than we did going to the top of the Arch! It was designed in 1948, building started in 1962 and the arch opened in 1967. Access to the top is via the small capsules. The view from the top is breathtaking and gives views for miles around. At the bottom we watched the film about the construction of the arch. The film shot at the time shows that the crew worked without lines and smoked at the full height of the arch!
We then went around the museum, which is laid out in a semi-circle with spokes radiating out. On the ceiling in concentric semi-circles are the decades of the 19th century so, as you follow a spoke out, you go through time. Finally we left the Arch for the old Courthouse. It was here the Joseph Pulitzer (he of the prize for journalism) purchased his first newspaper and it was here that the Scott/Dredd case started. This was where a slave fought for his freedom through the courts with the law and what set off the laws in the southern states that eventually led to the civil war.
Our lasting memory will be standing on top of the large Cahokia mound, warm but windblown, looking at 1000 years of history around us; wondering, why did they build this? Why?
First published in VISA 91 (Jun 2010)
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