Historical November 1980 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
There were maybe five or six real winters during the nineteenth century in St. Louis. Coming from Minnesota, I consider winter a time for outdoor ice hockey, snow drifts five or more feet tall and the Mississippi frozen solid for at least four months. 100 years ago this year, during the winter of 1880-1881, the Mississippi froze solid at St. Louis blocking all river traffic for 75 days.
The most destructive winter freeze was that of 1855- 1856 when over 60 riverboats were destroyed by ice and ice floes at the St. Louis levee alone.
However, it must be hastily added, the frozen river made an opportunity for those so constituted. Coal for St. Louis came from Illinois by ferry under the monopoly of Wiggins Ferry.
With ice blocking ferry traffic, coal was carried by horse drawn wagon over the ice, thus undercutting the usual dealers and making it possible for individuals to get their own. Sculptors made statues out of ice, like that of DeSoto in 1856, to decorate the bleak winter scene. Movement back and forth over the river was easier, if colder– all one had to do was walk or skate!
But soon some warmth came to the surface. Business on the river of the usual kind, i.e. boat traffic, had come to a complete stop; but new forms of old river entertainments started up almost immediately.
The old riverboat gamblers moved off the boats onto the ice. Tents and sheds were built on the river, heated with coal and turned into saloons and gambling houses. Neither Missouri nor Illinois claimed jurisdiction on the river since all navigable streams are within the purview of the federal government. Soon shanty stores of all kinds “grew up out of the ice.” Bordellos and bawdy houses moved out into mid-stream to locate near the saloons and gambling establishments.
The teamsters hauling coal and other supplies over the river began to fall behind their appointed schedules.
This made individual coal hauling trips “necessary” for many heads of households! Hotels were constructed to house entertainers from out of town, all on the ice. Skating and horse drawn sledding became popular pastimes on the river, often with motivation other than simple exercise. Spring thaws accomplished what local and state governments could not.
The ice bridge took all the boats at the levee plus the overburden of tents, shanties and “hotels.” Coal ferries got their sources of income back and DeSoto returned to his Mississippi grave as the wagons returned to the streets. Idled levee workers went back to their jobs when normal traffic on the river started up again. Soon the saloons were forgotten and the winters of the midnineteenth century grew in folklore to become “typical!” In fact they were rare. Over the past 100-125 years, the average monthly high for January is 40° — hardly cold!
To a northerner, if winter comes on a weekend in St. Louis, it is time for a party.
But then it is always time for a party in St. Louis.
Originally published in The Paper, November 1980.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1980_11.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 3.
