Developing the flood plain next to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area is a poor and dishonorable decision. Any decision about this land must be made with a vision of the history of this land and its promise for future generations.
This land is part of a three-mile stretch of undeveloped Mississippi riverbank and flood plain. Acting for the financial gain of a few people would exploit irreplaceable habitats for flora and fauna, natural wetlands, flood plain and the Mississippi River environment.
This land sits just below the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. The river corridor from St. Louis to Ste. Genevieve is being considered for UNESCO World Heritage protection for colonial sites. This land is on one of the top avian migratory routes in North America and is merely 500 feet from a restricted, no-access migratory bird sanctuary.
Any development would have environmental concerns and conservation issues for the United States. The Audubon Society has protested this project.
We ask the St. Louis County Council, the property owners, North County Development Co. LLC, their lawyers and representatives to consider the legacy of this land as a nexus of the rich history of St. Louis and our nation.
If you were to stand on the riverbank at the proposed development site at various times over the past 300 years, you would have witnessed history.
For more than 1,000 years, native settlements enjoyed this rich earth. Imagine a Mississippian man and his children pulling a canoe ashore right at this casino site.
In the 1760s, Spanish soldiers trudged to their quarters at Fort Don Carlos, minutes away. A few black men strode beside them; we have a roster of their names.
Among the trees and wild plants at water's edge years later, two men in military uniform, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, sailed past in longboats on the final lag of their successful exploration of the American West, a journey that departed from the confluence of the two mighty rivers. They carried a native woman, a black slave and a heroic dog in their boats.
In the 19th century, black men, women and children - nameless shadows in St. Louis' hidden history - worked their way along the river's edge, risking their lives for a chance to cross to the Illinois shore.
In the nation's great fight for freedom in the 1860s, messengers in small boats brought news from Alton, passing exactly at this place. They brought word of the mob that threw abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy's printing press into the Mississippi River and of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debating slavery there.
Later, on the banks of this flood plain, Civil War soldiers caught fish for dinner and played cards. They barracked just south of where the Chain of Rocks Bridge is now. Some of their lost buttons and target shells still turn up in yards along Columbia Bottom Road.
Imagine that legacy and contemplate pouring asphalt, concrete and chemicals over this deep, rich land. Imagine adding traffic noise and lights that erase the stars.
Near the Eads bridge in downtown St. Louis stands a majestic statue that commemorates the great feat of Lewis and Clark. The Mississippi in flood rises up around it. And, last week, the development parcel in north St. Louis County was underwater, doing its job as an active and functioning flood plain.
The proposed casino development sits directly on bottomland that was flooded much of the spring and summer this year. The flood plain is nature's way of handling the river's overflow. It helps keeps St. Louis dry.
Last year, residents along Columbia Bottom Road were sandbagging their back yards as the water rose right up across the fields, forming a huge lake. Columbia Bottom Road is the only access to this land. It is a lovely, rural two-lane road that leads up to neighborhoods and to the conservation area. Imagine approaching the vast preserved wildlands at the end of that road by driving through casino traffic and stripped natural lands, lit by bright neon lights.
St. Louisans should consider the ethics of what is proposed: The pursuit of money at the expense of St. Louis' heritage. Our history is a big part of our identity.
People are recognizing the value of heritage, responsible spending and giving to causes that matter in the long run. A casino-entertainment complex will not survive for long.
The developers have come here because the land is wide open, less costly to develop than other parcels. Because they will not have to clear the land, they can garner more profits for themselves.
The builders will tell you that they've "discovered" a large tract of "unused" farm fields. We need to tell anybody who will listen that others have walked this piece of Mississippi riverfront for 1,000 years. It was a suburb of the great Native American city Cahokia. It's the last bit left; we can't lose it.
The only honorable action is to prohibit any development of this area of North County, St. Louis' national park. We must build on the legacy of this land, preserving it for our grandchildren's grandchildren.
Officials must decide with honor. More tax revenue is not always the best choice.
