The Gateway Arch

To be brought to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and presented as a surprise gift to any mother-daughter tourist pair found there. Please take a photograph of the mission completion, and post it.

More than four centuries ago, the first Spanish and French explorers pushed deep into the heart of North America seeking gold and adventure. They found a land rich in natural resources, ruled by diverse and complex American Indian cultures. Close behind them came explorers in search of souls to save and the fur traders, who learned that true gold lay in beaver pelts. In 1764, two French trappers set up a trading post near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. They called the lonely outpost Saint Louis for Louis IX, France's sainted crusader king.

As the town grew and the Louisiana Territory was purchased by President Thomas Jefferson, a permanent courthouse became necessary. Built in stages from 1839 to 1862, this imposing civic structure witnessed much of the drama of American expansion. Pioneers bound for Oregon or California sometimes organized at the courthouse before heading west in long wagon trains. One of the most significant cases ever brought to trial occurred here when a slave named Dred Scott sued for his freedom.

Meanwhile, the rivers came alive with steam powered paddlewheel boats. Merchants and traders piled the St. Louis levees high with crates, bales and barrels of cargo waiting for transport downriver to New Orleans and out to the world beyond or upriver to farming towns, army forts and the gold fields. By the 1880s, the paddlewheel era was fading, replaced by railroads that linked towns to cities and coast to coast.

In the 19th century, St. Louis was the gateway through which many people passed ontheir way to the American West. Today, the Gateway Arch and the historic Old Courthouse are part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, honoring all those who packed their hopes and dreams into covered wagons and headed west toward a better life.