It seems to be in our nature to draw lines that separate us from this or that. Rivers offer a convenient way for us to draw some of those lines, those boundaries, especially big rivers. In this episode, I tell a few stories about how we’ve used the Mississippi River to draw political lines,
In 1849, St. Louisans must have wondered what they had done so wrong to deserve suffering through two terrible tragedies. Steamboats brought cholera to the city, triggering a deadly epidemic that would ultimately kill thousands of people. In the early waves of the epidemic, a steamboat fire on the levee got out of control
Last weekend, I hiked to Duck Island through a dust storm. That's not a sentence I ever expected to type. For one thing, Duck Island, as the name implies, is an island. It sits just downriver from the c0nfluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in Columbia Bottom Conservation Area and is usually best
The story of Dred and Harriet Scott's pursuit of freedom is one of the most significant in American history, but what do we know about their lives?
Introduction “First in booze, first in shoes, and last in the American League.” Those last place Browns are long gone, as are the shoe factories, but we still have the booze and a National League baseball team that is a perennial contender. St. Louis, my hometown, is great place to live and full
Population (2010) 319,305 Introduction St. Louis, my hometown, is a city with a long and layered history. As residents of Flyover Country, we tend to make the national news only when something goes wrong. Sure, we have our problems, but so do plenty of other places. We are a big
