ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Yeah, it's been pretty cold in St. Louis lately. The temperature hasn't been above the freezing point in the past 11 days and we're not expected to get back above 32-degrees until the weekend.
But at least it's not cold enough that the Mississippi River has frozen over – like it did throughout the mid-1800s.
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The Missouri History Society shared some photos with KMOX of how generations before us use to "eat, drink, gamble, and play" and walk from Missouri to Illinois across the frozen, mighty Mississippi River.
Check out more info and photos, here:
This photo from 1905 shows hundreds of people walking beneath Eads Bridge
A woman, possibly Annie Kuehn, and others crossing the frozen Mississippi River during the ice gorge of 1905. Missouri Historical Society Collections.In the winter of 1854 one man reportedly first opened up a liquor store halfway across the Mississippi. Then later that night, he added a 10-pin bowling alley
“Ice Bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis” from Harper’s Weekly, January 18, 1873. Missouri Historical Society Collections.People began to look forward to the Mississippi River freezing over, so they could host winter carnivals with gambling, drinking and live music
“Pedestrians Crossing the River on the Ice” from the St. Louis Republic, February 12, 1902.Stories of the festivals on ice became legendary and the Missouri Historical Society says some people couldn't wait for it to freeze again
“The Winter Carnival at St. Louis—The Mississippi Frozen Over—from a sketch by G. B. Ellsbury” from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, January 30, 1864. Missouri Historical Society Collections.On one day in 1856, an estimated 15,000 crossed the river by foot. Tents were scattered across the ice route selling cakes, coffee, oysters and whiskey. It was called "Mississippi Avenue"
Photo of the frozen Mississippi River in 1897 featured in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 26, 1951.Just for fun, let's compare those historic images to what we've experienced this week
(UPI, Bill Greenblatt)From Sunday through Monday, some around the greater St. Louis area saw more than 10-inches of snowfall
(UPI, Bill Greenblatt)Monday's snow in St. Louis was just the third time in recorded history (since 1890) that there was more than 2-inches of snow and a high temperature less than 5-degrees
(UPI, Bill Greenblatt)
