Historic Highway - Columbia Bottoms C.A. - St. Louis County, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 48.826 W 090° 07.585
15S E 749501 N 4300034
Confluence of the Missouri River and Mississippi Rivers.
Waymark Code: WM4F31
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 08/15/2008
Views: 34
Marker Erected by: Missouri Department of Conservation.
County of Marker: Saint Louis County.
Loction of Marker: Columbia Bottoms Rd., confluence parking area, Columbia Bottoms C.A., Spanish Lake.
Marker Text:
May 14, 1804
"...proceded up the Missouris under Sail to the first island on the Missouri and Camped...men in high spirits."
William Clark
When Lewis and Clark passed through St. Louis, the Mississippi stretched across what is now Columbia Bottom Conservation Area. The rich lands attracted settlement for the earliest times. Marquette and Joliet, the first known European explorers to the region, noted the area and its people in 1672. Lush wetlands nurtured wildlife, fish and forests. William Clark later described a landscape composed of many grasslands and forests. The habitats as seen by Lewis and Clark are being restored to the area, so watch as the land is transformed into the wetlands, prairies and forests of 200 years ago.