Perhaps no single other point in the United States can claim to be more the crossroads of America than the confluence of two of its greatest rivers, the actual spot where the 2,541-mile Missouri River flows into the 2,320-mile Mississippi River (see note below*). Although not in the exact center of the country, the confluence is the moment when the two longest rivers in the country meet, and it is where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark moved away from what might in 1804 be accurately described as the very extent of the “known” world on their 8,000-mile-plus trek to reach the Pacific Ocean.
Standing at the edge of the
Columbia Bottom Conservation Area in Missouri, watching the two waters combine and imaging this history and geographical uniqueness, is one of the nation’s finest things to do. St. Louis is fewer than 10 miles to the south.
Saint Louis-based
Trailnet and
The Confluence are two organizations actively
promoting and improving countryside and green education along the two rivers. One of their successes is to have local farmers in the area by the confluence designate 10 percent of their crops for wildlife conservation. And it is a success. In the last decade, more than $150 million has been raised and granted.
Some of that money has reached Columbia Bottom, where there is an interpretive center and five miles of hiking trails (overall, the fund has opened 13,000 acres of open space and more than 100 miles of bicycle lanes and hiking trails), all giving the public access to these very special, historically-important sites. Wildlife teems. When I was there I saw Wilson’s snipe, Gray heron, Blue-winged teal, American coot, Peregrine falcon, Killdeer, Turkey vulture, Northern shoveler and Cooper’s hawk, among other birds, and the confluence is a critically important bird-migration route.
Another success is its creation of a cell-phone audio tour (877-767-0603; no costs except for your own minutes used), which is set up for all of the confluence spots of interest. Each segment is approximately two minutes long.
The Missouri at this point is a much faster river than is the Mississippi. This was another surprise to me. Across the Missouri from Columbia Bottom is Confluence Point State Park, which is where it would be possible, although not recommended, to have one foot in each river. This park is more difficult to reach than is Columbia Bottom. Illinois can be seen on the other side of the Mississippi, and the state’s namesake river ends a few miles north of the confluence. Also in Illinois, glimpsed from Columbia Bottom, is the Lewis & Clark State Historic Site, where the famous explorers camped between December 1803 and May 1804, while planning their western march and, perhaps, getting up the courage to sail across. This would have been no small task; when I was there, I saw several large tree logs pass me rapidly.
At the bottom of Columbia Bottom, unseen from the confluence’s point, is the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. Now not open to vehicles, this is a small part of the famous Route 66, the stretches of 66 to either side now obliterated by other roads. A little more than half the way across is a 22-degree angle, so that the bridge appears as a V. This was to allow ships to navigate the river before the authorities built the present-day canal that travels between Chouteau Island (the green you see to the far right from Columbia Bottom) and the Illinois shoreline. Between the bridge and the confluence is the Chain of Rocks, which looked inconspicuous (a small ripple as water moved over stone) but was the downfall of numerous ships. Apparently, these rocks extend for some 17 miles, often hidden, most often treacherous.
Events take place all year at both the confluence and the bridge. One of the most popular is Trash Bash, organized by Trailnet, among others, which sees trash being collected from area rivers (who threw it there where it
does not belong in the first place?), while perhaps more exciting is Eagle Days, in January, where people gather on the bridge to watch majestic Bald eagles fly along the Mississippi. A Route 66 festival is held on and to both sides of the bridge in June.
* A note for the geography purists: We are taught that the Mississippi is the third-longest river in the world. Well, it is, and it isn’t. The Missouri actually is longer than the Mississippi, but it is the Mississippi’s tributary. The Missouri does not reach the sea; the Mississippi does, a little south of New Orleans. Rivers by definition have to drain into an ocean, or at least salty water. When the Mississippi River is mentioned in the record books, what statisticians really mean is the Missouri-Mississippi River, and their combined lengths from the beginning of the Missouri to the end of the Mississippi. Adding to the confusion is that the Missouri’s source generally is regarded as the Jefferson River, a 77-mile river that starts in Montana, so the third-longest river technically is the Jefferson-Missouri-Mississippi River. Got that?
Click on the map to see the area in TripTik Travel Planner
All photos by Terence Baker
