S. Illinois - Edswardsville Area

[R Mann]

I will be in the Edwardsville area for a week this month and I'm looking for suggestions of places to visit. I will be limited to places within a two hour drive. Are there any grain elevators worth taking a look at? Any parks with interesting geographic features. I know St. Louis is nearby, but I am not too interested in urban subjects.

[Greg Lockrey]

My wife is from there. You are about a half hour or so from St Louis and it's full of good photographic opportunities. The Botanical Garden there is among the best in the world. It will take at least three trips to see it all. The boondocks around E'ville are pretty flat and plain. Smells like oil too. I used to do a lot of cycling down there. There is a really good bike trail that goes through E'ville that is supposed to be a hundred miles long. If you're into cycling you could come across some out of the way sights that way.

BTW, Route 66 goes through E'ville too, so that's something you could explore too.

[David Karp]

St. Louis has one of the coolest subjects of all -- The arch. I was there on business years ago, with lots of down time. I brought my Canon FTb with me and spent all of my spare time photographing that thing. It changes with the weather like a chameleon. It is urban, but it is so fun to photograph.

[Greg Lockrey]

Speaking of the Arch, there is also a large sphere shaped building nearby and the joke of the town is that someday they will build a structure to resemble a crocket mallet so that they could have a gigantic game of crocket being played. :D

[David Karp]

. . . a gigantic game of crocket being played. :D

I love it.

[Greg Lockrey]

St Louis is a great town. It has a small town feel to it even though it is a very large city. The people have that friendly midwestern way about them (kind of like a very large Toledo, OH). It would be a good place to live but for me it's just too damn hot and humid for me.

[John Kasaian]

St Louis is a great town. It has a small town feel to it even though it is a very large city. The people have that friendly midwestern way about them (kind of like a very large Toledo, OH). It would be a good place to live but for me it's just too damn hot and humid for me.

Really? I bummed through St. Louis in the spring of 1976, and tried sleeping the the Greyhound Bus station. In the middle of the night I made my way to the lavatory downstairs and on the way back up some big black dude jumped me from behind and grabbing my throat with one huge hand and pinning me up against the stairwell and slamming the back of my head neatly into the wall, demanding money(which I didn't have much of, being a hobo of sorts)
I told him that if I had any money I wouldn't be sleeping in the bus station and it might be worth his while to try the airport because affluent people travelled by plane.
He asked me what the word affluent meant.
I told him.
And he left me alone.
I've always persumed that somebody at the St. Louis airport got mugged that evening on account of me :eek:

Needless to say I didn't sleep a wink for the rest of the night.

Be careful where you go in St. Louis!

[Greg Lockrey]

Really? I bummed through St. Louis in the spring of 1976, and tried sleeping the the Greyhound Bus station. In the middle of the night I made my way to the lavatory downstairs and on the way back up some big black dude jumped me from behind and grabbing my throat with one huge hand and pinning me up against the stairwell and slamming the back of my head neatly into the wall, demanding money(which I didn't have much of, being a hobo of sorts)
I told him that if I had any money I wouldn't be sleeping in the bus station and it might be worth his while to try the airport because affluent people travelled by plane.
He asked me what the word affluent meant.
I told him.
And he left me alone.
I've always persumed that somebody at the St. Louis airport got mugged that evening on account of me :eek:

Needless to say I didn't sleep a wink for the rest of the night.

Be careful where you go in St. Louis!
You sure that you weren't in East St Louis? :eek: I had a great tour guide (my wife) while I was there. She knew where to go and what to see. There are places everywhere that you don't want to venture into without a .454 Casul.

In my younger years when I was bumming I always found that sleeping in all-night Laundromats was pretty good. It looked like you were there doing laundry and just fell asleep waiting for your clothes to get dry.

[Diane Maher]

No Greg, he wasn't in East St. Louis. I am about 5 minutes south of Edwardsville. As far as i know, the Greyhound bus station is/was in downtown St. Louis (somewhere).

As for interesting geographic features. Hmmm. The Missouri Botanical Garden is interesting, but not at this time of year (IMO). The Laumeier Sculpture Garden is pretty neat. The Transportation Museum has a lot of train cars and may even have other things, but all I recall from my trip there is the train cars.

The Arch grounds themselves are interesting. Forest Park is also a nice place to visit, but with the current construction on the highways in the area, may be difficult to get to. Forest Park is where the 1904 World's Fair took place. The St. Louis Zoo is also neat, but is right next to Forest Park and the same caveat of construction traffic applies here.

Greg, as far as that sphere shaped building, I don't think I know what building you are talking about or I've seen it so much that I don't see it anymore.

[Michael Graves]

If I was to go out there again, I could burn through a box of film just in some of the small river communities that line the Mississippi between Hannibal and St. Louis. In fact, I'm hoping to get out there this coming summer and do just that.

[erie patsellis]

If I was to go out there again, I could burn through a box of film just in some of the small river communities that line the Mississippi between Hannibal and St. Louis. In fact, I'm hoping to get out there this coming summer and do just that.

Michael,
If you do, let me know, I live about 1 1/2 hours away and am always looking for an excuse to sneak off from work and go shooting.


erie

[lenser]

For architecture, river views and antiquing, look into Alton Ill, just north of St. Louis.

You might also head south about an hour to Fern Cliff State Park and Giant City State Park which are north of the Carbondale area. Both of them have wonderful bluffs and forrested landscapes with Giant City having tremendouse blocks of huge stones that have split into wide streets and avenues that are often two stories deep. There is mild climbing and great trails and on Sundays, the lodge at GC has the best all you can eat fried chicken dinner I've ever tasted. It's family stayle as far as side dishes, so go with an empty stomach.

By the way, the lodge itself is a great subject from the CCC days of the thirties. Huge building of native stone and enormous pillars of poplar, sort of built in the so called National Park style. Definitey worthy of some exposures both inside and out.

Closer to the St. Louis area is Cahokia Mounds which is a gigantic development of indian mounds that are reminiscent of some of the Maya cities.

Have fun.

Tim

[Greg Lockrey]

Greg, as far as that sphere shaped building, I don't think I know what building you are talking about or I've seen it so much that I don't see it anymore.

I don't know what that building was either. When I was down there about ten or so years ago my father in law was telling about those "archetectural" plans. :D

East St Louis was being facetious. ;)

[Michael Graves]

Michael,
If you do, let me know, I live about 1 1/2 hours away and am always looking for an excuse to sneak off from work and go shooting.


erie

I will do just that! Photography is always more fun with a companion. My wife shoots with a Speed Graphic and she'll show us both up...but it'll still be fun.

[chris_4622]

I just came back from a weekend of camping in the Shawnee National Forest. Saw plenty of old farms etc. on our way. We went to the east side which might be a little farther than you want to travel but there are small towns around the area surrounded by farms. Contact me if you want some specifics.

chris

[aduncanson]

For architecture, river views and antiquing, look into Alton Ill, just north of St. Louis.



Alton has that new cable-stay bridge that was the subject of a Nova program titled "Superbridge" on PBS when it was built back in the early 90's.

[erie patsellis]

Best place to shoot it is the park area on the west side (MO side), with numerous vantage points.

[R Mann]

Thanks for the suggestions - time and weather permitting I hope to be able to check out a number of them.

[Steve M Hostetter]

Hello,,, well if you were in the southern most tip of Ill you'd be near Tennessee and Reelfoot Lake ...

Neat old towns with plenty of hidden jewels

[Steve M Hostetter]

Garden of the Gods

[Richard M. Coda]

...dude jumped me from behind and grabbing my throat with one huge hand and pinning me up against the stairwell and slamming the back of my head neatly into the wall, demanding money

A similar thing happened to me in 1968... only it was in Orange NJ, and I was in 3rd grade. To this day I can't button the top button of a shirt and hate wearing ties!