Montana

 Home  >>  Missouri  >>  St. Charles  >>  Contemporary Article

Touring St. Charles

By: Falcon Guides

Touring St. Charles

Although Camp Wood can rightfully be called the expedition’s starting point, St. Charles was where final preparations were made, last-minute supplies obtained, and the boatload readjusted. Moreover, as we have seen, the expedition was shy one captain upon its arrival in St. Charles May 16, 1804. Lewis caught up to the corps May 20, and they formally got under way the next day.

In his journal, Clark described St. Charles in this way: “This village is about one mile in length, contains about 100 houses and about 450 inhabitants, chiefly French. Those people appear poor, polite, and harmonious.” Founded in 1769 as a fur-trading post by Louis Blanchette, a French-Canadian hunter, St. Charles was the first permanent white settlement on the Missouri River. Early white inhabitants called the area Les Petites Cotes (“The Little Hills”) because of the surrounding terrain.

After the United States took over the Louisiana Territory, St. Charles’s influence grew. Its location near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers made it an ideal outfitting port for land and water routes to the West. The city also was the eastern terminus of the Boonslick Road, which led to the Boone brothers’ salt works in Howard County. St. Charles served as Missouri’s first state capital from 1821 to 1826.

The Lewis and Clark Center at 701 Riverside Drive features down-home exhibits on the expedition. Its centerpiece is a second-floor diorama by artist Evangeline Groth that traces the corps’ journey to the Pacific Ocean. Other displays tell why some of the expedition’s supporting characters—Sacagawea, Pierre Cruzatte, Ben York, and Lewis’s dog, Seaman—were so important to the venture’s success. Reproductions of items used by the expedition are also on view. Another display notes that the last-minute purchases made in St. Charles included tin cups, knives, “and all the tobacco in town.”

The center has a trading post and offers a variety of classes and programs for school and youth groups. It also sells a handy booklet telling about Lewis and Clark in St. Charles, complete with a map that pinpoints sites known to the expedition. The center is open daily (except major holidays) from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $1 for adults and 50 cents for children ages 3 through 17. For more information, call (636) 947-3199.

After visiting the center, take some time to explore St. Charles’s South Main Street historic district, with its cobblestone streets and charming little parks. (Self-guided walking tour brochures are available at most businesses.) The building at 719 South Main Street, now Karen’s River Cabin, was built in the 1790s and stood when Lewis and Clark were in town. On the riverfront, the Goldenrod Showboat presents Broadway-style dinner theater shows. Nearby, an enclosed pavilion showcases the work of the Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, a project through which Lewis and Clark buffs plan to authentically re-create Lewis and Clark’s trip on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers in keelboat and pirogue replicas. The group is raising funds and looking for people to take part in the journey. For more information or to request enlistment papers, write the Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, 314 South Main Street, St. Charles, Missouri 63301, or send a fax to (636) 925-1759.

The Lewis and Clark Rendezvous, staged the third weekend each May, includes a reenactment of the corps’ 1804 encampment. Other activities include a parade, crafts and foods of the period, a fife and drum corps muster, and military reenactment groups demonstrating eighteenth- and nineteenth-century drill tactics.

St. Charles serves as a major access point to the Katy Trail, one of America’s most unusual state parks. See the Katy Trail section later in this chapter for more information. This may also be the honeymoon capital of the Lewis and Clark Trail, with several wedding chapels and many bed-and-breakfast inns ready to serve romantic couples. For more information on things to see and do in St. Charles, stop by the visitors bureau at 230 South Main Street, or call (800) 366-2427.

Traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail