Historic St. Louis: 250 Years Exploring New Frontiers

“Indians live much better than men under tyranny and arbitrary government….
Nature has given them a soul which…condemns dishonesty, petty fraud,
and all…vices which are daily practiced…in refined life.”
–John Dunn Hunter, Osage captive (1823)
C H A P T E R 1
EXPLORING THE CONFLUENCE
OF CULTURES AND RIVERS
Above: Detail of the Mississippi-Missouri
River Confluence, 1997.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BOB SRENCO
(BOB@SRENCOAERIALPHOTO.COM) AND USED
WITH PERMISSION.
Right: Purported Portrait of Pierre de
Laclede Liguest. The sailing ship in the
background symbolized Laclede’s voyage to
New Orleans in 1755, and his expensive
clothing may have been a family gift to a
second son as he began a commercial career
in America. For the complex details about
Laclede portraiture, see J. Frederick Fausz,
Founding St. Louis: First City of the
New West (Charleston: The History Press,
2011), 207.
COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS
(OBJ: 1916 024 001); PERHAPS COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL
IN THE FAMILY’S BEDOUS MANSION.
While the crusader king, Louis IX of France, was killing Muslims in the thirteenth century,
some 10,000 Native Americans were living at the future site of St. Louis, then a suburb of the
impressive Mississippian metropolis of Cahokia. Five hundred years later, French colonists
founded the first—and final—town here since those Indian mound-builders. Although they
named it to honor the only French monarch to achieve sainthood, the popular nickname
of “Mound City” was more appropriate, since two dozen of those man-made landmarks gave
St. Louis a distinctive appearance for another century and
imparted a special connection with Indians ever since.
In his 1974 historical novel, Centennial, James Michener
wondered why, of all the frontier towns founded near the
same time, “St. Louis alone should grow into one of the
world’s great cities.” His answer was “Brains”—referring
to the many wise decisions made by the intelligent,
well-educated city founder, Pierre de Laclede Liguest.
That gentleman merchant was uniquely qualified to be
a successful frontier entrepreneur, city planner, and
Indian diplomat, given his multilingual abilities,
commercial ambitions, military training, and tolerant,
liberal attitudes derived from the French Enlightenment.
Above all, he was an explorer who founded a city
of explorers.
H I S T O R I C S T . L O U I S
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