Gateway Arch National Park and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Today was a busy day . . . rainy as most of my days are . . . yet still packed full of new experiences!
Last night was a tad restless. The area was wracked by severe thunderstorms. They woke me a few times, banging through the fifth-floor hotel windows. Apparently, the storms became so bad that at one point the entire hotel went dark for a few minutes!! Luckily, when I woke, the worst had moved south and there was just a light rain.
I made an uneventful drive into St. Louis, excited when I finally saw the Gateway Arch in the distance . . . I expected BIG, but it is immense!! I also must thank MapQuest . . . for once it did not lead me astray in the city and I was able to navigate directly to the park. It might have also helped that the ARCH does kind of dominate the skyline on the river, so it is hard to get lost!
Gateway Arch. The Visitor Center, Museum and access to the trams that go to the top of the arch are underground below the arch. You can see the entry way in this photo below the arch. It truly is not only a beautifully designed complex but is very elegant in its function and form. It is easy to see why this was the winning vision in the contest for the design of the monument.The mural inside the visitor center commemorating the designers and all of the builders of the Gateway Arch.
Part of my visit to the Arch was getting to watch the film showing the construction of the monument from start to finish. I had to laugh at myself, as I sat in the audience cringing every time I saw the “iron men” as the film called them, hundreds of feet in the air, working with no gloves, or not safety lines, no safety harnesses and smoking. Things were so very different in the 60’s! LOL Amazingly, the planners of the construction of the arch estimated that the building would cost 13 workers their lives, however, in the almost three years it took to build the arch, not a single fatality was recorded. You really need to see the movie to appreciate what the conditions were like for those folks. I could not do what they did every day!!
The arch is the tallest human-built monument in the United States. The arch took almost three years to build, but then took two more years for all the interior work to be completed with installation of the trams, ultimately opening in 1967. Regrettably, the architect who won the contest for his design of the arch died before the arch was completed.
Looking up the side of the arch at the triangular sections that it is assembled from. It is incredibly beautiful and even more impressive at the top.You ride up to the top in small, five person gondolas. If you are claustrophobic, or have a fear of heights, this may not be the ride for you! Once at the top, it is a short walk to get to the observation area where you can look down on the city of St. Louis and the Mississippi River.It is a very long way down!!The view is spectacular. That is Busch Stadium on the left, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. Directly in front is the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott vs Sanford landmark decision was made stating that the Constitution did not include American citizenship to people of African descent, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free. This ruling would ultimately fuel the fire leading to the American Civil War.A closer look down at the Old Courthouse. You can see the statue of Dred Scott and his wife to the left of the steps leading into the courthouse,See that circle . . . that is the entrance into the Museum and Visitor center. I was quite impressed at the design and content of the museum in documenting America’s movement west and the impact our ancestors had on the lands and peoples that were here before us.
Cahokia Mound State Park is the largest prehistoric Indian village north of Mexico. This was a site that I had been hoping to see for a very long time. Always fascinated by the Inca and Mayan cultures of Central and South America, I have always wanted to learn more about the ancient Mississippian Indian culture and the mounds they built in ancient North America.
Monk Mound. Built by hand with soil excavated and carried here in baskets from “borrow pits”, this mound is made up of approximately 22 million cubic feet of dirt. The base covers 14 acres and the top tier of the mound is 100 feet high. Monk Mound is named after the French Trappist Monks who lived on a nearby mound from 1809 – 1813, and who grew fruit trees and crops on the terraces of the large mound.At one time, it is believed that this city spanned an area of six square miles. This site had at least 120 mounds of various sizes, and the State of Illinois maintains 72 of the remaining 80 mounds. In this photo you can see two of the other larger mounds across the highway from Monk Mound, Archeological evidence has now shown that the central ceremonial precinct was surrounded by a wooden stockade like the recreation shown above, the stockade would have been two miles long, made from approximately 15 – 20,000 logs, and it appears to have been rebuilt four times as the log rotted, and conditions and threats changed. You can see another mound in the background, slightly left of center frame.Looking towards St. Louis from the top of Monk Mound. It is believed that the Senior Religious Leader, who may have also been the chief of the local tribe, lived on the top terrace of Monk Mound in a protected enclosure.Looking out across at other existing mounds, one of which was used as a burial site for victims of religious sacrifice, most of them young women.
Sadly, I was not able to see all that I had hoped to see regarding the mysteries of these people. The visitor center was closed for repairs and is now scheduled to reopen in the Spring of 2023. Also, there are trails around the park, but you are not allowed to venture out into the fields, which really restricted my ability to get good photos of the mounds. Maybe I will simply need to come back in the Spring!
I am visiting some old friends in Michigan tomorrow for a couple of days. I should be back on the road again on June 30th . . . not positive where I will be though . . . so this is going to be as much of a surprise to us both. Please keep tagging along! I am sure it will be an adventure!
What the Walrus said . . . 