Moving past Barrett Station, further on down the tracks is the East Barrett Tunnel. The western entrance to the tunnel has been covered up, most likely by the northern approach to the Barrett Station Road bridge over the train tracks. The eastern tunnel is much larger and longer than the western tunnel. Due to the…
Tag: Historic Sites
West Barrett Tunnel, Revisited
I originally looked at the eastern entrance of the West Barrett Tunnel back in December of 2013. I felt it was time to do some more investigation and find the western entrance. Supposedly this tunnel and its eastern mate are the oldest train tunnels west of the Mississippi River. As I wrote back in 2013,…
Nauvoo, Illinois
We visited the historic Mormon settlement of Nauvoo on our journey north up the Mississippi River looking at Iowa cities back in May. Of course, Nauvoo is in Illinois, and it is in an isolated corner of the state. There are numerous houses and other buildings from the historic period that have been restored, and…
The Day The Music Died
The plane carrying Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens didn’t make it very far, and it crashed in a field several miles north of Clear Lake. The local news has a good summary of the cause of the crash, so I won’t rehash it here. Unlike the freezing cold, snowy winter night of…
Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa
Buddy Holly played the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis on April 15, 1958. Less than a year later, he, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens would be crisscrossing the Upper Midwest in the dead of winter, hitting small ballrooms such as the Surf Ballroom in the small town of Clear Lake on the shore of…
About That Lynch Guy
Interest has renewed lately to place a plaque commemorating the infamous last location of Lynch’s slave pens at the northeast corner of Clark Street and South Broadway, now the location of the Stadium East Garage. Lynch operated this location for a relatively short time from around 1860 to 1861 or 1862 when the Union Army…
East St. Louis Updates
I was in East St. Louis recently and thought I would look and see how things are doing. There’s some good news and some bad. The bad news is that continued disinvestment has led to infrastructure having to be condemned, as is the case of the 26th Street Bridge, a major conduit for traffic over…
Fort D, Cape Girardeau
I was excited to learn there was a surviving Civil War era fort remaining in Cape Girardeau, high on a strategic hill on the south side of downtown. For whatever reason, it was never destroyed and survives in a residential neighborhood. Constructed by Union Army engineers sent down from St. Louis, the influence of those…
Wickliffe Mounds
Showing the importance of the confluence, there are actually many Pre-Columbian archeological sites near Cairo. One well-preserved site is Wicliffe Mounds. Above is the ceremonial mound. The other mounds were the locations of houses and burials. Apparently this place was owned privately for years and was a sort of roadside attraction of dubious quality for…
Returning to Cairo, Ten Years Later
It’s been ten years since my last visit to Cairo, Illinois, and it felt like it was time to check in on the town that played a critical role in the history of America, and in St. Louis. It was from here that Ulysses S. Grant, formerly of St. Louis, launched his invasion south, changing…