10/10/07 (Wednesday): Great day today! We drove to Mastodon State Historic Site in Imperial, Missouri. This site is important because scientists discovered the first solid evidence of the coexistence of mastodons and humans here. 10,000 to 35,000 years ago, the glaciers were melting and animals like giant ground sloths, peccaries and mastodons roamed the Midwest. Paleontologists believe that this whole area was swampy and dotted with mineral springs. Animals were trapped in the springs and the mud helped preserve their bones. Early Native Americans also arrived in present-day Missouri about 12,000 years ago. For a short time, Native Americans hunted the mastodons. This was proved when spear points were discovered in the same layer as mastodon bones.
The bone bed was first reported in the early 1800's, and there were several scientific (and not so scientific) excavations. This is a picture of a scientist who reconstructed these big bones incorrectly and toured the U.S. and Europe exhibiting his strange skeleton.
We were a little disappointed that none of the excavations is open to the public, but we enjoyed exploring the museum and then hiking down to the bottom of an old quarry. It was a beautiful, cool day and a fun hike.
We stopped for a quick lunch and then drove into downtown St. Louis. It was a thrill to cross the Mississippi River! The exploration of America's West was one of my favorite parts of history when I was a kid.
There's quite a tangle of interstates in St. Louis, but we only got a little bit lost. Our destination was the Arch, and we kept seeing it, but we couldn't get near it! We finally found parking and walked through a pretty linear park along the Mississippi River to the Arch. There's a museum, store, movie theater and recreated frontier store in the base. 
You take these neat trams up to the top of the arch. Elevators wouldn't be able to navigate the curves of the Arch, so an engineer designed these trams. It took about 2 minutes to get to the top.
At the top, you leaned on carpeted ledges and looked out small windows. The views were fantastic! 
From one side, you looked out over the Mississippi River where there were barges (we think this one was loaded with coal) and tour boats.
From the other side, the city of St. Louis was spread out all the way to the horizon with a tangle of highways and a sprinkling of historic buildings among the modern ones. The building in the lower center of this picture is the historic courthouse where Dred Scott first sued the state of Missouri for his freedom. As you'll remember from your history books, the U.S. Supreme Court eventually found that he was not a citizen and therefore was not eligible to sue. This was one of the reasons for the Civil War.
Tomorrow we head West again. Our first stop will be the Merrimac Cave, where Jesse James and his brother hid out. History was never so much fun in school!
10/10/07 (Wednesday): Great day today! We drove to Mastodon State Historic Site in Imperial, Missouri. This site is important because scientists discovered the first solid evidence of the coexistence of mastodons and humans here. 10,000 to 35,000 years ago, the glaciers were melting and animals like giant ground sloths, peccaries and mastodons roamed the Midwest. Paleontologists believe that this whole area was swampy and dotted with mineral springs. Animals were trapped in the springs and the mud helped preserve their bones. Early Native Americans also arrived in present-day Missouri about 12,000 years ago. For a short time, Native Americans hunted the mastodons. This was proved when spear points were discovered in the same layer as mastodon bones.
The bone bed was first reported in the early 1800's, and there were several scientific (and not so scientific) excavations. This is a picture of a scientist who reconstructed these big bones incorrectly and toured the U.S. and Europe exhibiting his strange skeleton.
We were a little disappointed that none of the excavations is open to the public, but we enjoyed exploring the museum and then hiking down to the bottom of an old quarry. It was a beautiful, cool day and a fun hike.
We stopped for a quick lunch and then drove into downtown St. Louis. It was a thrill to cross the Mississippi River! The exploration of America's West was one of my favorite parts of history when I was a kid.
There's quite a tangle of interstates in St. Louis, but we only got a little bit lost. Our destination was the Arch, and we kept seeing it, but we couldn't get near it! We finally found parking and walked through a pretty linear park along the Mississippi River to the Arch. There's a museum, store, movie theater and recreated frontier store in the base. 
You take these neat trams up to the top of the arch. Elevators wouldn't be able to navigate the curves of the Arch, so an engineer designed these trams. It took about 2 minutes to get to the top.
At the top, you leaned on carpeted ledges and looked out small windows. The views were fantastic! 
From one side, you looked out over the Mississippi River where there were barges (we think this one was loaded with coal) and tour boats.
From the other side, the city of St. Louis was spread out all the way to the horizon with a tangle of highways and a sprinkling of historic buildings among the modern ones. The building in the lower center of this picture is the historic courthouse where Dred Scott first sued the state of Missouri for his freedom. As you'll remember from your history books, the U.S. Supreme Court eventually found that he was not a citizen and therefore was not eligible to sue. This was one of the reasons for the Civil War.
Tomorrow we head West again. Our first stop will be the Merrimac Cave, where Jesse James and his brother hid out. History was never so much fun in school!
7 comments:
Great picture of the arch and the city view is nice. From the top, some of the buildings look like toys -- not real. Did you drive around the city? From a distance, it looks so orderly. Pristine.
I had to go back to look at your blog again to see how to spell mastadon -- in spite of the fact that I'd have driven right past that museum, I found your info interesting in spite of myself! It seems you're off to a good beginning on your trail to the west.
The arch is very photogenic, and it really does dominate the city. We drove around some, and you could see it from several different angles.
It's funny that you'd say that about the spelling of "mastodon"--I had to look back to the sign to spell it right myself. And it is "mastOdon," not "mastAdon."
Sorry that you didn't see the St. Louis Botanical Gardens; they are fantastic. Re last weeks blog--those osage orange trees have vicious thorns (going barefoot in my Chicago Heights yard was an adventure).
Sarah
I would be with you Julie driving right past that museum but it looks like it would be right up Wiley's alley. I never knew you could even go in the arch and I always wondered the point of it but you've cleared my confusion! Definitely want to do that someday
I'm going to try again, I having trouble posting. At 71 it's me. Quitters never win, here goes. I'm happy you got to the Arch. We lived in St Louis when Wiley was 18 months old,and Sr went to a Mapping School on the Mississilppi. We were poor folks and went to the Zoo many times. The animals knew our names.We went back to visit my brother years later and took in the Arch at that time. Happy trails
The arch was the highlight of the trip so far for me. I'm not sure what Wiley liked best. He's suffering from fishing withdrawal!
Mag - you seem to have solved whatever was happening with posting comments, because we got this one and at least one other one. Who would ever have thought we'd be so "plugged in" in our golden years?!
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