March 16, 2014
River Des Peres
“The name, meaning “River of the Fathers,” is of French origin, and was given by locals because a mission of Jesuit Catholic priests resided near the confluence of the river with the Mississippi. The priests were established in 1700 and soon moved south in 1703 to Kaskaskia, probably as a result of conflict with American Indians, roughly 60 years prior to the founding of St. Louis. There is also a city of the same name, located in west St. Louis County.”
“In preparation for the 1904 World’s Fair, the portion that flows through Forest Park was disguised by temporary wooden channels. Shortly thereafter, that portion was placed entirely underground. More recently, an artificial water flow was created in its stead, using the city’s water supply. This is often mistakenly considered a re-creation of the original River des Peres. However, the water flow here is deliberately produced, not derived from rainfall, or runoff, etc., and thus cannot be considered a re-creation of the river. The resemblance of the water feature to a picturesque river scene was an attempt to maintain continuity with the appearance of the rest of Forest Park’s landscape, which for the most part, excepting significantly recent additions to the Art Museum (by Peter Walker), upholds the original, early twentieth century pastoral design intentions of George Kessler.”
“The River des Peres has functioned as a combined sanitary sewer and storm drain for over 100 years. In the early 1930s, following high demand for preventive safety measures brought on by a series of fatal floods, the river was channelized, with its upper sections redirected underground in large sewage pipes. Design and construction was led by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Horner & Shifrin, and the Works Progress Administration. The lower banks of the river, most notably along Willmore Park and the River des Peres Greenway, were lined with quarried limestone, producing a distinct landmark for decades to come. “Safety First / W.P.A.” is writen in mosaics along the eastern banks.”
Exploring the River Des Peres
Yes, I copied Wikipedia for the above. I mean what more can really be said about a big sewer and who is going to care? I care exactly enough to copy and paste relevant details from the Wikipedia article.
There aren’t many people adventurous/stupid enough to willingly go into the sewers just to see what’s going on down there. Luckily, we have the exact qualifications needed for the job.
While anyone can just waltz in to this thing, it would be a good idea to at least wear a good set of waders. But it takes an extra kind of stupid (along with extra gear) to make it across the abyss to the Brick Section. The Brick Section is a tantalizing passage in the wall on the other side of the Middle Portal. The Middle Portal is the main channel of the River Des Peres as it runs beneath Forest Park. At this point, it is a deep, slippery tube of death that leads off into the darkness. At the time of our visit (and I’d wager 100% of the rest of the time) the Middle Portal is too steep and too slippery to cross without a competent support team and that would be the case even if there was no current. But on top of these issues, there is also a fairly strong current of flowing sewage water. Looking out into the abyss, one observes that there is no hope for escape and nothing to grab on to as far as can be seen into the darkness. I have no idea where you’d end up if you were unfortunate enough to end up floating away down there. And floating away into the dark abyss to drown in shit is the most likely fate for anyone who tries getting across to the brick section without taking the necessary precautions.
I was fortunate to embark upon this very stupid task with some very competent comrades. We set up shop and everyone got across without incident. We then explored a mildly interesting brick arched sewer for a couple miles or so. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that people not from Saint Louis seem to go apeshit over our brick arched sewers. These weirdos act like it’s the coolest thing they’ve ever seen. I can think of a lot cooler stuff but hey, it’s also cool to share in activities in which other people are clearly enjoying themselves. So sure, I’ll go crawl though some shit with you if it’ll make you happy. After we were all thoroughly exhausted at what was now the end of a long day, we took our chances with a random vertical sewer shaft with rungs versus retracing our steps all the way back and across the abyss.
We emerged from a manhole in the middle of the street in the middle of a residential area of Saint Louis at about 2am. There were ~5 of us. By the time we all got up and out of the manhole, we realized there was a group of people hanging out on their front porch and they seemed alarmed at the sight of a clown car’s worth of filthy freaks climbing up out of the sewers in the middle of the night/morning. They asked what we were doing, to which we responded that we were just exploring the sewers and then we walked off to go all the way back to our cars.
You might be forgiven for assuming that people in the city who are up at 2am would be more likely to look the other way when something like this happens. We all made that assumption. In this case, though, we only made it about a block away and onto the main road (which, IIRC, was Delmar) when we were promptly stopped by police who asked us why we just emerged from a manhole down the street. The cops seemed genuinely confused. After about five minutes of listening to us failing to convince them why anyone would want to explore a sewer, they let us go.
To me, it's an astonishing and highly informative about a feature of the city that's not readily apparent. At the meeting of it with the Mississippi, J.B.Eads placed a ship-building site that built the City Class of riverine ironclads, which were crucial in the Civil War, contributing greatly to victory.