Saint Louis

This marker for the City of St. Louis does not stand in the city. It stands on Lindbergh Boulevard at Lindbergh High School in Sappington, St. Louis County, beyond the line the plaque dates to 1877. On August 22, 1876, city voters chose to secede from the county; after a recount, independence became official in March 1877. The city kept 66 square miles and has never been able to annex more. The plaque's eighth city of 1950 reached its peak that year at 856,796 people; by 2020 it held 301,578 inside the same line.

What the plaque says

Saint Louis First city of the Trans-Mississippi West and second permanent settlement in Missouri. Founded, 1764, by the New Orleans Frenchman Laclede as a trading post to tap the rich fur resources of the Missouri Valley. Named for canonized Louis IX, French Crusader-King. Here on March 10, 1804, Upper Louisiana, from which has come 6 states and parts of 7 others, was transferred to the U.S. Missouri, part of Louisiana, later Missouri, Territory, became a state, 1820. The name of Missouri, meaning "He of the big canoe," was adopted when Orleans Territory became the State of Louisiana, 1812. St. Louis served as colonial, territorial, and first state capital. Alexander McNair, first state governor, took office here. Among a multitude of famous events, here first established west of the Mississippi were a newspaper, the "Missouri Gazette," 1808, and a university, chartered as St. Louis University, 1832. Washington University was chartered, 1853. In 1780 a British and Indian attack on St. Louis was defeated. In Missouri, the Civil War began here at Camp Jackson, 1861. St. Louis became the Federal military base. It is of note that the Dred Scott Case began here. (See other side) Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1953 Saint Louis (Continued from other side) Through this city of movement, a famous river port, early transportation hub, passed the westward surge of fur traders, explorers, and settlers. The Lewis and Clark Expedition returned here in triumph, 1806. In 1851 track for the Missouri Pacific, first railroad west of the Mississippi, was laid. One of 7 bridges at St. Louis is the famous Eads Bridge, 1874. In 1804 the city had a total French and American population of under 1000. Rapid growth came through immigration from the states and later Europe, particularly from Germany. In 1950 St. Louis, a raw fur market, grain, industrial, and medical center, was the eighth city in the U.S. St. Louis became an independent political unit, 1877. It had been seat of justice for one of Missouri's first 5 counties, earlier one of 5 Spanish districts. There are several hundred commemorative markers and memorials in St. Louis. Among places of note are the Old Cathedral; City Art and Missouri Historical Society museums; Forest Park; Mo. Botanical Garden; Campbell House Museum; Eugene Field Birthplace; Aloe Plaza; Soldiers' Memorial; the Old Court house in Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1953

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site — 2.1 mi
  White Haven, the Dent family farm where Grant courted Julia and farmed in the 1850s beside the enslaved people her father held, some of whom the park now names.
• Missouri Botanical Garden — 8.7 mi
  Henry Shaw's 1859 garden in south St. Louis, with his 1849 country house, the geodesic Climatron of 1960 and a Japanese garden laid around a four-acre lake.
• Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis — 10 mi
  A Romanesque and Byzantine cathedral on Lindell Boulevard begun in 1907, whose mosaics took until 1988 to finish and now hold 41.5 million tesserae.
• Mastodon State Historic Site — 10 mi
  The Kimmswick Bone Bed, misread and quarried for more than a century until a Clovis point found among mastodon bones in 1979 gave the first solid evidence that people and mastodons lived here together.

More markers nearby

• Saint Charles — 18 mi
• Jefferson County — 23 mi