Along The Mississippi A LONG Time Ago!
People tend to think that St. Louis is in Missouri, but geographically St. Louis is in the area between the Ozark uplift of southern Missouri and the synclinal basin of central Illinois. While the modern history of St. Louis starts on May 8th, 1541 (The first documented discovery of the Mississippi River by a European (Desoto) - Encyclopedia Britanica On line edition), St. Louis' history goes WAY Further back. While the exact date of human habitation is debated, it's pretty well accepted that humans have lived around here since before 12000 B.C. http://associations.missouristate.edu/mas/articles/articlemotimeperiods.html)
The area's main attraction then, and still a major attraction now, is the confluence of the Missouri River (North America's longest river) and the Mississippi (North America's biggest river). While the Mastodon's probably didn't really care, the early European's who explored and then settled the St. Louis area found the confluence of the two major rivers to be very advantagous to the fur trade.
Later the fact that where the Mississippi river was generally only 3 to 5 feet deep above St. Louis and that it is generally 6 to 10 feet deep below St. Louis made it an obvious location for the changing of transport ships that could navigate the different depths.
Prior to the Europeans settling the area there had been a succession of peoples and cultures that molded their lifestyles around the various climate that predominated during the period from 12000 B.C to 900 AD. Starting around 900 A.D. what is referred to as the Mississippian period occured. Not to be confused with the Geological time period of the same name. This Mississippian period refers to the time period that the Mississippian Indians flourish. One of the major characteristics of the Mississippian Indians was that they were mound builders. Many scholars feel the the building of these mounds was a direct result of a powerful and influencial ruling class. http://bama.ua.edu/~alaarch/prehistoricalabama/mississippian.htm The population of Cahokia Illinois during this period was thought to be around 20,000 people, a huge number for any society to maintain during this time frame. http://www.prairieghosts.com/cahokia.html.
More on the Cahokia Indians, the mound building culture and the mounds around St. Louis on the next St. Louis history article.
This is the first in a series of articles about St. Louis history. As the title indicates the articles will be a quick over-view of the cronilogical history of St. Louis. Afterwards articles will go into more detail about historical events that have happened here that I think will be of interest to people who visit our site.
That said, help is always appreciated and if you have an idea for an article or you would like to submit an article, please click on the contact us link at the bottom of this page and let me know what you have in mind! Also, your feedback is always appreciated.
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