Wernle, Larry D JR MVS wrote: > I'll add my two cents on the American Bottoms. It's allegedly the largest > floodplain in the U.S., but I've never seen proof. It runs from the bluffs > in Alton past the bluffs in Collinsville and on down thru the bluffs in > Dupo, etc. All of Granite City, East St. Louis, Cahokia, Madison (the > city), Venice, Caseyville, Alorton, Hartford, Roxana, etc, etc, etc, are in > the floodplain of the Mississippi River. If it weren't for the protection > of several levee districts, large portions of the area would routinely > flood. In the '93 flood, approximately 8 miles of I-64 would have been > underwater in St. Clair County. When Fountain Creek (I think) breached a > flank levee, the wave rushed past Valmeyer. Intentional backflooding > "probably" saved Prairie Du Rocher from the wave by intercepting and > attenuating it. For whatever reason, Rocher was spared. Valmeyer was not. > > I apologize now to those who feel this isn't list-related. > > Larry Wernle in St. Louis > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Cherlynn B Thomas [SMTP:[email protected]] > > Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 1999 1:41 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: [ILMONROE-L] American Bottom > > > > Excuse my ignorance . . . > > > > What is the American Bottom or "the Bottom." I have seen it mentioned a > > few places in Monroe county, IL articles/histories. > > > > Cherlynn Thomas > > [email protected] > > > > ______________________________ > > ==== ILMONROE Mailing List ==== > One of the peculiar features of the county is the innumerable "sinks" or > "sink-holes." These are funnel shaped depressions in the clay, sometimes > reaching a depth of 100 feet, and are caused by breaks in the St. Louis > limestone .......On the Fountain Creek four miles west of Waterloo, is a > break in the Creek Bluff of this stone, and the trickling of the mineral > laden waters from the roof has left a fascicle of stalactites slightly > resembling a human hand, and as the cave was firstly explored shortly > after the appearance of Mrs. Southworth's novel it has been named the > "Hidden Hand." Near Madonnaville, is a similar passage, and south of > Burksville, one said to have explored upwards of a mile (?). > Combined Atlases of Monroe County 1875, 1901, 1916 p. 11 No apologies necessary! I spent part of my childhood living in my grandmother's home in Granite City and attended several grades of elementary school there (I am now 65 so this was a while ago). I now find it interesting that in school I heard not one word, not a syllable, regarding the huge Indian city of Cahokia---on which we sat, essentially---or on the role of Fort Kaskaskia or of the American Bottom American history, or even anything about the concept "Mississippi Flood Plain" when, it was either 1945 or 1946, there was an ENORMOUS flood in which the water in the streets must have been two or three feet deep. People traveled around by boat and we all had to get typhoid shots. I never even realized that, as the crow flies, we lived only about a mile and a half from the river---going to St. Louis by street car or in an automobile was by a long, circuitous route. No, don't apologize--- I don't see how genealogy can be separated from either geography or history. Nora Tocus, Chicago