Meet Me In St. Louis
I made it into St. Louis just as it started to blow and snow and
sleet. Seriously? April?
Snow or not, I had a rather momentous day in St. Louis. Count them –
THREE Junior Ranger badges in one day. I am overcome with a
superabundance of joy. I know a lot of people might very possibly
think I'm nuts about this Junior Ranger thing, but I do get a lot of
pleasure out of working the programs. I like how it makes me slow
down and really explore the National site that I'm at. It makes me
become much more in the present and I also get to interact with the
rangers who are not only a wealth of information and love to share
their knowledge, but they seem to just really seem to enjoy their
jobs.
Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to revisit the Ulysses S.
Grant National Historic Site. I had visited it back in 2013 on my
very first trip with this RV. It hadn't changed much, it was still
painted that rather unique color they called Paris Green.
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| Picture I took in 2013 |
Downtown St. Louis has two Historic Sites, just
about a block from each other. The first one is the Old Courthouse.
In 1847 (before the Civil War) Dred and Harriet Scott sued for their
freedom. The Scotts were slaves in Missouri which was a slave state.
Their owner was a military man and he got transferred to Fort
Snelling in Minnesota which was a free state. The owner took Dred to
Minnesota and according to the law, that would make Dred a free man.
The owner then took Dred back to Missouri which is where Dred sued
for his freedom. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court
where Dred lost his bid for freedom. It was called the Dred Scott
Decision and "stands
first in any list of the worst Supreme Court decisions”. Many
people consider it one of the tipping points for the start of the
Civil War.
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| Old Courthouse with the Arch behind it |
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| The dome of the Old Courthouse. It was impressive |
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| Funny how Harriet Scott sued for her freedom at the same time as Dred Scott but it isn't called the Harriet Scott decision, just the Dred Scott decision. I guess Harriet just plain gets no notice in HIStory. |
As
I stood on the steps of the Old Courthouse, the heavens opened up and
there was a torrential rain storm with high winds. I was on a
timetable, I had looked at my weather app and they said that not only
was it going to rain for another hour but it was going to start
hailing in another 7 minutes. Luckily, I was right in front of the
ever present gift shop so I ducked in there to buy an umbrella for
$20. After completing my transaction for a lovely St. Louis
souvenir umbrella, I went back out to the top of the steps to find
that it had totally stopped raining. Oh well, I unfurled my new
umbrella and started off down the street. Did I mention the 40 mile
an hour winds that almost swept me and my umbrella away in a poor
imitation of Mary Poppins.
I
walked over to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial which is
more commonly called the Gateway Arch. Last time I was here was in
1969, soon after it was completed. I remember hardly anything about
that trip so I thought I should stop by to see if it triggered any
memories. Nope, no memories. This arch is TALL – 630 feet. It is
the tallest arch in the world, the tallest monument in the Western
Hemisphere and the tallest stainless steel monument in the whole wide
world. You go into the Visitor's Center which is underground.
Watching the movie about the arch really made the arch even more
impressive.
The
idea for the memorial was first floated in 1933 but it took another
thirty years for it to be completed in 1965. They had a design
competition which a Finnish-American architect won. I guess this
explains the Scandinavian Minimalist look to the arch. They had to
clear 40 blocks to start and then it was truly a mathematical/
engineering achievement to get it built. Think about the fact that
there are no cranes that can go up 630 feet so they built pseudo
train track up the legs of the monument and used that to hoist a
crane up.
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| Located underground in the Visitor's Center |
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| It was a Dark and Stormy Day |
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