Photograph by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis district
Tours
By Helicopter: Based just south of the Eads Bridge, Gateway Helicopter Tours affords eagle’s-eye views of the river (starting at $35).
By Kayak: Big Muddy Adventures’ single-day trips explore the Middle Mississippi River between Alton and St. Louis ($65 to $160 per person, depending on the party size).
By Riverboat: Replica steamboats the Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher offer cruises. Visit gatewayarch.com for more info. (Or try the Golden Eagle Ferry, which runs between St. Charles County in Missouri and Calhoun County in Illinois.)
By Bike: Load up the Cannondale or rent a quadcycle near the Arch, and take the restored Riverfront Trail north to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. Cross the river and pedal along its shores via the Madison County Transit Trails.
By Car: There’s no shortage of possible routes—Illinois’ Great River Road, North County’s Riverview Drive, South City’s Broadway. Our advice? Pack a pair of binoculars and a picnic and dial the Confluence Cell Phone Audio Tour (877-767-0603) as you explore.
Attractions
Gateway Geyser: The world’s second tallest fountain sprays up to 630 feet in the air (roughly the same height as the Arch across the river). It erupts at noon and 3, 6, and 9 p.m. from April through October.
Statues: Front and center is Harry Weber’s The Captains’ Return, depicting Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and dog Seaman in a boat beneath the Eads Bridge. A 15-foot statue of the trio also resides in St. Charles’ Frontier Park. And since 1957, Our Lady of the Rivers has stood near Portage des Sioux.
National Great Rivers Museum: It’s adjacent to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam. Displays include a replica of the river bluffs, a barge simulator, and a miniature model of the river, much like the ones used by engineers.
Alton Museum of History and Art: Sure, you can learn about the town’s gentle giant and the legend of the Piasa bird. But there’s also a small room with memorabilia from one-time riverboat business Eagle Packet Company and Streckfus Steamers (which ran the SS Admiral), as well as a pilothouse replica.
Camp River Dubois: A 55-foot, full-scale replica of the keelboat that carried Lewis and Clark is the highlight of the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. Outside, there’s a log fort where the famous duo made camp.
Overlooks
Lewis & Clark Confluence Tower: This 180-foot tower opened last year. From three observation decks, you can gaze out at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, look out over Hartford, Ill., and faintly discern the skyscrapers of St. Louis and Clayton in
the distance.
Old Chain of Rocks Bridge: Built in 1929 as part of Route 66, the historic bridge closed in 1967. Abandoned 32 years, it reopened in 1999 for cyclists and pedestrians.
Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park: The tiered 40-foot overlook, located directly across from the Arch in East St. Louis, opened in spring 2009 just south of the Casino Queen.
Bellerive Park: Plop down on a park bench, and count the number of barges passing by on the Mississippi. At the intersection of Bates Street and South Broadway, near the eastern edge of Carondelet, the five-acre park affords a nice view.
Jefferson Barracks Park: There’s a wealth of military history inside the 1,700-acre park. Find your way to the Battle of the Bulge monument, just north of the Powder Magazine Museum, and you can admire the Mississippi from the bluff tops.
In Case You Wondered...
Selma Hall: More commonly known as Kennett’s Castle, this antebellum riverfront mansion near Festus is owned by Union Pacific and closed to the public.
Piasa Bird: Native Americans etched the giant Piasa (pronounced pie-uh-saw) into a limestone bluff long before white settlers moved into the region. In 1673, Father Jacques Marquette described these creatures: “They are as large as a calf; they have horns on their heads like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body covered with scales, and so long a tail that it winds all around the body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a fish’s tail.” Herbert Forcade re-created a rendering of the beast on the bluffs in 1924, though it was blasted away years later to make room for the Great River Road. Today, a new rendering of the gigantic monster peers down from a cliff about a mile north of Alton.
Cementland: Artist Bob Cassilly has worked for years on this 54-acre former cement factory in Riverview, shaping it into a playground/art exhibit with giant sculptures and navigable waterways.
Miss Rockaway Armada: Several years ago, adventurous artists strung together a hodgepodge of salvaged materials to build a floating “junk armada, our anarchist county fair, our fools’ ark.” They sailed the strange-looking rafts down the Mississippi, drawing stares along the way. See their projects at missrockaway.org/wordpress.
