St Louis
St Louis, the largest city in Missouri, lies just below the junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi, which here forms the boundary between the states of Missouri and Illinois. An industrial city (metalworking, foodstuffs, textiles, furniture), it is also the seat of the St Louis University
(founded 1818), the oldest university west of the Mississippi. St Louis is still known as the "Gateway to the West", on account of its being from here that the Europeans set out to conquer the Wild West. Its connection with Scott Joplin, the "father" of ragtime, ensures its fame as a music city, third only to Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee.
History In 1764 a French fur trader named Pierre Laclede established a trading post here, named St Louis after the French King Louis IX (St Louis). In 1803 the town, which then had a population of only 1000, passed to the United States along with the rest of Louisiana under the Louisiana Purchase, and soon developed into an important staging post for settlers on their way to the west. In 1849 most of the town was destroyed in a great fire. During the Civil War St Louis was an important Union base.
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