St Louis 22nd July and 23rd

Dillard Grist Mill, Missouri

Red panels are tin, pressed to resemble brickwork, reused from another building

Part of waterfall near mill race

Red Bluff, Mark Twain National Forest: Huzzah Creek

Ginger enjoying a rest

Gary in typical pose taking photo's

Luna Moth

View from campsite

Several types of Fungi around the camp in the woods

Old Courthouse, St Louis

The Arch, St Louis

Views from the observation area at the top of the Arch

Mississippi river in full flood

Museum beneath the Arch to commemorate the exploration and settlement of western land

Thursday 22nd July:

Set out from Springfield along the I-44 towards St Louis. Visited Dillard's Mill on the way, this was a grist mill powered by water from Huzzah Creek. The original mill was built 1850's on a separate spot and destroyed by fire in 1895. This mill was built 1908 in it's current spot. Too late to see inside the mill which has much of the original machinery, mill stopped working in 1956. Originally used to mill flour but ended it's life milling cattle feed. What interested us was the tin cladding which obviously had been re-used, but where did it come from? Most of the tin was pressed to resemble brickwork but whoever fixed it on the wooden frame was not interested in achieving a pleasing aesthetic finish.

Whilst walking around the outside Ginger and I looked at various small pieces of rock strewn about and obviously not from this immediate area. The rocks were covered in small crystals and in concretion form which I thought would be calcite. Ginger had other ideas and thought they were quartz. Not having seen quartz in this form was rather sceptical however a couple of days later she finds a web site that details Drusy Quartz.

This type of quartz covers crystals from very tiny up to jewelry sized pieces. Forms on a substrate such as an agate and can be coated in Titanium, Platinum, Gold and Silver. No such luck with the samples we saw, however very sparkling and from a natural geode formation.

Set up camp at Red Bluff, again a primitive camping ground high up over looking the creek, opposing bluffs and surrounding wooded countryside. Once camp set we drove down to the camp supervisor to pay our dues ($10), plus we bought a cord of wood from him to augment Gary's supplies. Had another great fire that night, perfect for cooking on and later - the marshmallows.

Paddled in the creek and took pictures of the bluffs, named due to the red iron staining on the off white rocks. Had a chat with some visiting kayak's, as I found all over the USA my accent was a great ice breaker. As you can see from the photo's there was a variety of fungi present in the surrounding woods.

Our pitch was one of three high up on the bluff, the rest being much lower down and close to the creek. The 2G's showed me where they had camped before, by the creek and since their visit (in the last 2 to 3 weeks) it was clear that floods had washed right through the lower levels - pleased we were well out of harms way then! Nobody else near us on the top so bliss, spent the evening enjoying the view, watching the sun go down and moon and stars appear. Saw a few fireflies but less in number than on the 2G's last visit.

As we were at the top of the bluff we had a brief spell of a breeze from below, very welcoming and cooling - temperatures during the day were again in the high 90's with high humidity. No animals tonight just the ever present cicadas.

Friday

Sat and watched the turkey vultures riding the thermals in the morning whilst having my morning cup of tea. One of the treats of camping is the early sunshine and the ability to listen to the dawn chorus when the cicadas are quiet and the birds take over. Reasonably early rise as we still have 3.5 hrs of driving to do for a treat. Ginger spotted the luna moth on a nearby tree, what a lovely creature the largest moth to be found in the USA.

The treat turned out to be a 630 foot high arch covered in stainless steel panels. This is the Gateway Arch and is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Museum. We had planned to spend a half day here but the complex was so interesting we stayed the night at a local motel on the outskirts of St Louis.

The arch is a monument to the westward expansion of the USA and details the Lewis & Clark travels up the Mississippi. What makes this arch interesting, civil engineering wise, is that it was designed in 1947 but due to the Korean war construction did not commence until 1963. The arch was completed in 1965 with the first public viewing two years later.

The legs are equilateral triangles narrowing from 54 to 17 feet per side. The arch is hollow and both legs incorporate a unique tram system. At the top there is an observation area with small windows, one gets a splendid of the city on one side and the Mississippi and outskirts from the other. The river was in flood when we visited and one had a good birds eye view of the extent. According to the blurb the trams rotate by 5 degrees as they travel keeping them upright as they descend up the arch. The small compartment, seating 5 persons has small windows in the doors to enable you to see the inside construction of the arch. Travelling in the tram was a slightly weird feeling knowing that you start off in a vertical plane and by rights should end up in a horizontal plane. The designer was given 2 weeks to come up with preliminary design and he has based it on marrying the Ferris wheel concept with that of the cable car - ingenious.

I bought a small brochure called "Building the Arch - the improbable dream". It is primarily pictures but what I found fascinating was the way the arch was constructed. Remember this was in the mid 60's and I have tried to think of iconic structures we were building at the same time? Each span kicks off from heavily reinforced foundations and at the outset the tolerances were set very tight. The designer allowed a maximum of one sixty fourth of an inch at the top, to allow the insertion of the keystone part. To counter the heat factor all surveying was undertaken at night. Whilst fitting out aircon had to be installed early as temperatures reached 115 degrees, something they had not allowed for.

At that time the crawler cranes could only install the first 6 sections so the constructor came up with an ingenious tracked crawl system which climbed up the outside of the leg. I think that it was an incredible design, each leg had to be self supporting no matter what the weather and conditions, and be able to lift and install each new section with no other assistance. In late October 1965 the final section was installed but only after the two legs had to be jacked 2.5 metres apart. Due to the heat the southern leg had to be doused in water to stop the steelwork expanding too much. Watching the short film of the construction process whilst there was no fatalities neither did the construction workers use much safety equipment. A beautiful structure and one to be proud of.

Underneath is a vast area housing the Museum of Westward Expansion a third of which chronicles the exploits of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The whole museum is well set out with plenty of material to read. Around the left hand side of the wall space is an extensive time line charting the history of the USA during the 19th Century with both text and pictures. This took over an hour to read and contained over a 100 pages of text. Most of the important events are captured but no doubt there are more events that could be described. Throughout the floor area there were dioramas of life in the 19th century; indian, cavalry, mountain men, farming, mining, pioneers and their families. Read quite a bit and took some photos of some of the exhibits and could have spent more time just reading all the information present.

Just had time to visit the Old Courthouse which is across the main road and is a part of the museum. Original building was erected 1826/9 and within 10 years was considered too small. So a new building was constructed beside and around the existing to allow continual use. Since then several phases of remodelling has taken place. Inside and out it is a beautiful building and they have included three examples of what a courtroom would have looked like at differing periods. Not had time to read the booklet fully but the Dred Scott trials of 1847 and 1850 featured heavily in the information provided. Not aware of this trial but to quote the booklet "Dred Scott became and has remained a symbol of injustice, oppression, and the battle for individual human rights gone awry" This was about two slaves seeking their freedom whilst being moved around between states by their owner. Very complicated issues and whilst the courts did not give them their freedom they were passed onto a family who did. This case was key in that it dealt with the rights of a person know matter who they were and led to the eventual abolition of slavery, rights to vote for all and womens rights being identified and upheld - all very heady stuff.

Next stop - Transportation museum