ST LOUIS: Social Studies
Tour
Home > Destinations > St
Louis > Social
Studies
FEATURED ATTRACTIONS
Anheuser-Busch Brewery offers
2-hour tours of the Clydesdale stables, brew-house,
and packaging plant.
The Gateway Arch is an inverted catenary of gleaming
stainless steel that soars 630 feet above the site
of Pierre Laclede’s house and trading post.
It commemorates what was the gateway to the West
for thousands of 19th-century pioneers. Designed
by Eero Saarinen, the memorial is 75-feet higher
than the Washington Monument and required 886 tons
of stainless steel. A tram carries visitors to
an observation deck at the top of the arch.
Cahokia Mounds State
Park contains the remains
of the most sophisticated prehistoric native
civilization north of Mexico on a 2,200-acre site.
Cahokia was
inhabited from A.D. 700 to 1400 and covered nearly
six square miles with 10-20,000 people living
here. The fate of the Cahokians and their city
is unknown.
Depletion of resources, climate change, war,
or disease
may have taken their toll.
Grant’s Farm contains
a cabin built in 1856 by Ulysses S. Grant on
land he once farmed. On
the 281-acre tract, operated by Anheuser-Busch
Co., are
a Clydesdale stallion stable and paddock, miniature
zoo, trophy room, carriage collection, animal
feeding area, deer park and elephant and bird
shows.
Laclede’s Landing on
the riverfront is the site of the city’s
original settlement. The 19th-century, nine square
block district filled
with cobblestone streets and cast-iron street
lamps and
buildings, is an entertainment district offering
small shops and unusual restaurants.
Lewis & Clark:
Imagining the Expedition from St. Louis
an interactive exhibit featuring written
accounts, fine art, and artifacts from the St.
Louis and Camp River Dubois preparation period.
Shopping – Union
Station St. Louis began as
a marketplace for the continent; furs and food
were exchanged for goods from the East and
Europe. The
embodiment of this role was the city’s
Union Station, a continental crossroads of mammoth
proportions
catering to some 300 trains and tens of thousands
of passengers daily. Passengers no longer throng
the vaulted Grand Hall, and trains no longer
thunder in the shed. Instead, specialty stores,
festive
markets and a hotel fill its cavernous space
and have restored
Union Station as a downtown landmark and made
it a centerpiece of several marketplaces.
Six Flags St. Louis has more than 100 rides,
shows and attractions. Rides include Batman The
Adventure, Ninja, Screamin’ Eagle and Mine
Train roller coasters; Tidal Wave, Thunder River
and Log Flume
water rides; and Colossus, the giant ferris wheel.
St. Louis Cathedral is
an example of Byzantine and Romanesque architectural
styles. Work on
the marble
and glass mosaics covering the church walls and
ceiling was begun in 1912.
St. Louis Science
Center allows over 700 hands-on
explorations of such diverse topics as cosmology,
space science, medical technology and development,
ecology and aviation. Watch spectacular films
in the 4-story Omnimax Theatre. See what its
like to
work on the Boeing Space Station in the Planetarium.
St. Louis Zoo creates
a naturalistic setting of bluffs, glades and
lakes for more than 3,600
wild
animals.
Visit the Penguin & Puffin Coast, River’s
Edge, The Wild, Discovery Corner, Historic Hill
and Red Rocks. The Fragile Forest provides a
breathtaking
look at chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas
in their new outdoor home. The 1904 World’s
Fair Flight Cage purchased after the fair ended
was the impetus
for the development of the zoo. With the creation
of the Cypress Swamp, you are transformed into
a world of mystery that is full of life both
above and below the waters surface.
Tom Sawyer
and Becky Thatcher Cruises at the
base of the Gateway Arch, offer 1-hour narrated
trips
on the Mississippi River aboard replicas of
19th-century steamboats. |
Hotel accomodations (in
quads) 
