Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park (also called Creve Coeur County Park) is a 2,145-acre (8.68 km2) St. Louis County park located in Maryland Heights, Missouri. The park is the largest in the St. Louis County Parks system and includes Creve Coeur Lake, an oxbow lake which is the largest natural lake in Missouri. The park has facilities for picnicking, tennis courts, multi-purpose athletic fields, and an archery course. Creve Coeur Park includes Crystal Springs Quarry Golf Course, an 18-hole course opened in 2001. In December 2003, construction for the Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park Bridge, which is part of Missouri Route 364, was completed. The concrete bridge connects St. Louis County to St. Charles County and crosses over the southern end of the park. The project also included Creve Coeur Lake being dredged and the addition of a siltation lake to prevent the need for later dredging. Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park has an asphalt walking trail around the lake. The trail also connects to a separate lane leading to the Missouri River to connect to the Katy Trail. A large portion of the park and surrounding area is also wetlands, and the park has been used for conservation purposes, particularly the study of various waterfowl. The park was the first in the St. Louis County Park system and was dedicated in 1945. A smaller, 66-acre (0.27 km2) lake, called Mallard Lake, was constructed with the bridge project.
The name Creve Coeur is French for “broken heart”. There are many colorful stories as to how the lake received this name. In the 1800s, the lake was utilized as a source of ice for St. Louis and has long been used for recreation. The lake today is still used for boating (non-gasoline boats only) and fishing, but no swimming is allowed.
www.stlouiscounty.com/parks and recreation
We would like to thank the ranger at Creve Coeur Lake County Park for granting permission to place this cache and for his help with the Mallard Lake CITO event cache.