Colonial St. Louis

Discover the indigenous and Creole culture of St. Louis before the Louisiana Purchase. French merchants Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau selected an ideal site to build a commercial village, which they named St. Louis. Near the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers, St. Louis became a hub for trade with regional American Indian tribes. French officials, Spanish administrators, and entrepreneurial citizens arrived and built the village into a significant trading post and the political capital of the region. St. Louis quickly became an affluent and cultured place due to its natural advantages and the people who came here to make their fortunes.

Jefferson’s Vision

St. Louis shaped the West. President Thomas Jefferson knew that the Spanish and British had mapped much of the Pacific Coast and Canada. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was part of Jefferson’s vision for the United States and the ongoing struggle among nations for supremacy in North America. In 1803, Jefferson asked Meriwether Lewis to lead this critical mission. In May 1804, Lewis, Clark, and a crew of about 50 set out from the St. Louis area. They returned to St. Louis in September 1806. More would go west from St. Louis to trade and explore, shaping the future of the continent.

Manifest Destiny

In the mid-1800s, many Americans believed the United States had a God-given right—a “manifest destiny”—to expand. By war or by treaty, the United States was determined to move west. After the U.S. annexed Texas, Mexico and the U.S. continued to dispute the border, provoking a war. Settlers lived with and conflicted with indigenous people. By 1848 the map of the United Stated looked much like a map of today – the U.S. extended from the east coast to California.

The Riverfront Era

In 1817, the first steamboat to arrive in St. Louis changed the city forever. Steamboats made the Missouri River a gateway to the West. During the 1840s and 1850s, the St. Louis levee bustled with intense daily activity. Hundreds of boats moored there each year. The city made a fortune on fees charged at the port. The Port of St. Louis was important as a Midwest distribution point for goods from other parts of the United States and for international imports, facilitating and fueling westward expansion.

New Frontiers

St. Louis began as a center of trade on waterways, but in the late 1840s it became a manufacturing city. By the 1870s St. Louis ranked with the top cities in the nation as a center of industrial might. Rails sent manufactured goods west, creating an American metropolis.

What was the American West really like during the 19th century? The mythic West has become better known around the world than the actual history and events of the period. Explore how people settled and lived in the West, the myths that became the West’s cultural legacy, and how industrial innovation changed St. Louis and the nation.

Building the Arch

By the 1930s, railroads absorbed a large share of the freight once shipped by river and businesses relocated from the riverfront. Two years after World War II, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association sponsored an architectural competition to revive the riverfront. Learn how the Gateway Arch became a reality. When Eero Saarinen’s design was chosen, no one had ever built anything like it. Discover the innovative builders who created the monument.