Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
“You’re doing a story on what?”
The question wasn’t an uncommon one when we mentioned the focus of this month’s cover story to friends and family. The best restaurants? Sure. Forest Park? Naturally. But the Mississippi River, so often associated with devastating floods and dirty water?
“It’s just so…ugly” is how one longtime St. Louisan put it.
John Chick, an aquatic ecologist who moved here from the East Coast, recalls his parents’ impression the first time they visited St. Louis. Hoping to show off the focus of his research, he bought tickets for a boat cruise along the Mississippi. To their dismay, much of what they saw along the shores near downtown St. Louis was industrial—scrap yards, grain elevators, manufacturing plants.
“Then you compare it to the drive you get going up to Grafton,” says Chick, sitting inside the new National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, near Alton, Ill. “It really is a stark contrast. From here north, the river is valued as a natural resource. As you go farther south, people still value the river, but they also start to see it as big and dangerous and swift—it’s a whole different attitude.”
We’ll admit that we, too, were pleasantly surprised as we researched the subject of “Big River” (p. 70). One weekend, my wife and I drove from East St. Louis’ Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park to Pere Marquette State Park, stopping at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge and Lewis & Clark Confluence Tower. Sitting at Grafton Winery & Brewhaus at sunset, we were awestruck by the natural beauty around us. Another afternoon, I toured the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, talking to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees and watching barges push cargo upriver. I was reminded of the river’s functionality, the geography that caused Pierre Laclede to declare, “This settlement will become one of the finest cities in America.” And yet another morning, a colleague and I sifted through historic photos and reprints of paintings. Again, we were captivated by the river’s raw power, the inspiration of Mark Twain, George Caleb Bingham, and Oscar Hammerstein II.
The resulting story examines the Mississippi River from an array of angles: workers and wildlife, artwork and attractions, historic uses and future development. As you might expect, we could only skim the surface in 18 pages—any one of these subjects could fill an entire book. In exploring the depths of the river, however, we encourage you to look past its murky surface and see it for something far mightier.
