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Edward “Ted” and Pat Jones-Confluence Point State Park provides a unique perspective on America. The park stands at the point where two of the nation’s mightiest rivers, the Missouri and the Mississippi, merge. Confluence Point is where Western expansion really began. It is also where the Lewis and Clark Expedition set off on their journey up the Missouri. The park’s wetlands are part of the Mississippi River flyway. This makes it a great place to see waterfowl, including bald eagles and raptors.
WHERE TWO RIVERS BECOME ONE
In 1721, French explorer Father Pierre Francois de Charlevoix wrote of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, “I believe this is the finest confluence in the world. The two rivers are much the same breadth, each about half a league; but the Missouri is by far the most rapid, and seems to enter the Mississippi like a conqueror, through which it carries its white waters to the opposite shore without mixing them, after wards, it gives its color to the Mississippi which it never loses again but carries quite down to the sea….”
Nearly 300 years later, visitors to Edward “Ted” and Pat Jones-Confluence Point State Park can still witness the two great rivers of North America as they join and become one. The Mississippi River is the vital highway down which the products of America’s factories and fields travel to the world. It merges with the Missouri River, the wild western river. In 1804, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark hoped the Missouri River was the Northwest Passage leading to the Pacific Ocean. They did not find the Northwest Passage, but at the confluence of the two rivers, they began their epic journey to the Pacific Ocean.
Just as today’s Americans live in a world much changed from that of Lewis and Clark, the two great rivers have changed and continue to change the confluence point. The confluence point is now two miles downstream from the point where the Corps of Discovery entered into the Missouri River. The expedition’s keelboat actually floated atop the present-day confluence point, as it was then the river channel.
FLOODPLAIN
Because it is located in a floodplain, the park’s development has been limited to day-use facilities. The park features outdoor interpretive exhibits that give the history of the rivers. They also explain the role the rivers played in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. A short interpretive trail leads directly to the point where the Mighty Mississippi and the Big Muddy merge into one.
Edward “Ted” and Pat Jones-Confluence Point State Park is part of the Confluence Greenway, a 200-square-mile network of conservation, heritage and recreation attractions being developed along the Great Rivers in the heart of the bi-state St. Louis region.
PARK HOURS & FEES
Contact Park
PARK PHONE
636-899-1135
PARK ADDRESS
1000 Riverlands Way
West Alton, MO 63386-0067
For more information click HERE.
Have you visited this state park? If so, please leave a comment. Thanks.
BREATHE LIFE!
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