In the time of the flatboats and the coming of the first steamboats documented so well through the early American navigational river guides, maps clearly indicated a future problem for St. Louis and its highly praised river harbor—the city was essentially on a peninsula which could become a remote island due to floods and other naturally occurring circumstances over time. The many islands and sand bars in the river were alarming testament in early maps., The western pilot : containing charts of the Ohio River, and of the Mississippi from the mouth of the Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico, accompanied with directions for navigating the same, and a description of the towns on their banks, tributary streams, etc. Also, a variety of matter interesting to all who are concerned in the navigation of those rivers / by Samuel Cumings. Cincinnati : Morgan, Lodge and Fisher, printers, 1825.
Collot’s maps of Louisiana were made in 1796 and were most likely planned for military intrigues and colonial conquest, but the work transcended its purpose in thoroughly documenting the earliest settlements of the Illinois Country. These plans were the most detailed to their time., From Collot's work "Voyages dans l'Amérique Septentrionale, ou Description des pays arrosés par le Mississippi, l'Ohio, le Missouri et autres rivières affluentes..." Published in Paris by A. Bertrand, 1826.
In the time of the flatboats and the coming of the first steamboats documented so well through the early American navigational river guides, maps clearly indicated a future problem for St. Louis and its highly praised river harbor—the city was essentially on a peninsula which could become a remote island due to floods and other naturally occurring circumstances over time. The many islands and sand bars in the river were alarming testament in early maps.
