Follow It to the Ferry
So after Trixie and I finished our pizza at Fortel's Pizza Den the other evening, we decided to take a drive to find a neighborhood where a friend is building a new home. So, we soon found ourselves on Old Lemay Ferry Road, headed south.
As both of us grew up in South County, we have long been accustomed to traveling up and down Lemay Ferry Road, named in honor of the Lemais Ferry, which operated in the 1800's as a crossing point from one side of the Meramec River to the other.
As I was saying...
So, we're headed south on Old Lemay Ferry, inclining, descending, curving, all along ears popping and admiring the trailer splattered landscape.
I figure we can take the road as far as it intersects with a major road, turn around and say "Wow that was fun. I had no idea Old Lemay Ferry went down that far!"
After 25 minutes, we're still headed down Delta way and we pass underneath an elevated HWY M.
I know where we are and feel we haven't sufficiently explored the windy ways and sleepy hollows that are deep Jefferson County.
Maybe 2 miles past HWY M is Jen-nay's House, pictured above.
In spite of this, we continue the journey.
Bounding, climbing and braking, we enter a quaint little existence of a town square that's seen better days.
We pass the Antonia Liquor and More store and continue descending deeper into what's quickly becoming rurally unfriendly.
I'm determined to find the next major road and then turn around.
We then arrive in Goldman, MO.
HUH? I've lived in St. Louis all my life and have never heard of Goldman, MO.
After all, we're only like 35 minutes from Downtown St. Louis.
The picture is proof of the town.
Got a fire department and everything...
I drive maybe another mile and am confronted by the stop sign pictured above.
Again, HUH?
No ROAD ENDS signs, no SLOW DOWN signs, no STATE PARK signs, no
the road just ends.
I find myself in the Shady Creek State Historic Site.
HUH?
Never heard of it.
Next I find the historic covered bridge (Pictured above, but I hope you've figured that out by now. If not, you're a waterhead and I'd appreciate you just leaving now and never coming back.)
at the end of Old Lemay Ferry road.
So, if there's a bridge, and there has been since 1872
why the fuck would I take a ferry???
posted by HemisphereDancer @ 10:27 AM
6 Comments:
Lemay Ferry Road was a road the Jesuits planned to connect St. Louis with St. Genevieve. The Lemais Ferry crossed the Meramec River along this road giving it it's name. The covered bridge that you came upon was one of six built in the 1870's along Lemay Ferry Road to connect Hillsboro with St. Louis (whether one of these six replaced the ferry crossing I don't know). I don't think there is a Lemay Ferry Road in Jefferson County without the "Old" in front of it; Lemay Ferry becames Jeffco Blvd when it crosses the Meramec and was later a route to St. Genevieve that by-passed Hillsboro -- you must have turned onto 141 and then onto Old Lemay Ferry, the original route. There was no ferry over that creek.
Jim - That's awesome! I wasn't able to find that much information when I looked. Thanks!
I must still admit I'd never heard of Goldman, MO though, and I grew up in Oakville...
neither had I, no one there must have ever been murdered so the St. Louis media has never noticed it -- after your trip, you can understand why the liquor for St. Louis during Prohibition tended to come from Jeffereson County, easy to hide the stills and roadhouses in those hills
ps. east or west of Telegraph?
It was west of Telegraph Road.
You don't happen to know who owns the big huge house at the bottom of a hill off of Christopher Road, do you?
We always were told when we were in junior high and high school that it was John Goodman's.
This has since been disproven, but I do know he lives in Oakville, as he shops at the Telegraph Dierberg's.
Goodman built a home in west county but I don't remember exactly where (I knew the general contractor on the house next door) but I think it was farther north in the Chesterfield area -- the KTRS studios are in West Port so my guess is that he would want to be close to those -- I know the house you are talking about, if you get the address you can look it up in an online crisscross directory --
ps. the Jesuits called Lemay Ferry Road the Camino Real or King's Highway, it started at their missions on either side of the River des Peres (River of the Fathers) -- the first Lemay Ferry bridge over the River des Peres was a covered bridge so my guess is still that the first on over the Meramec was also covered
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