Struggle For Empire: Early Origins to 1815

1797 A.D.
click to see the outline

BC
23000

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Captain Piggott secures "perpetual" lease from the Spanish governor in St Louis (Zenon Trudeau) to build two log cabins. He begins operating a hand powered ferry to go back and forth across the Mississippi, landing on the Missouri side at Place d'Armes on Market Street.

The ferry was a simple platform surrounded by railings floated on Indian pirogues (hollowed out logs) and poled or paddled by Creoles (half Indian, half French). Cabins are built in the French palisade style (post and terre) with vertical logs set in the ground. (Piggott's ferry exists today in the form of the Terminal Railroad Association.)