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Troubled Waters: Critical Hiking at Saint Stanislaus Conservation Areahttps://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/0C5FC6C1-B832-4718-AD0C-8E3D89D83BE0-1-scaled.jpegView westward from the ridge in Saint Stanislaus Conservation Area (Photo by Margaret Smith)https://iris.siue.edu<b>Human Histories of a Saint Louis Naturescape</b><br><br><i>Margaret K. Smith and Jacqueline Shea<br>IRIS Center, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville</i><br><br>The hiking trail in Saint Stanislaus Conservation Area, located in Florissant, Missouri, guides hikers through pleasant woods, scenic overlooks over the Missouri River, and multiple sets of stone ruins. Signage in the park informs visitors about the geological makeup of the site and Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery, which passed through the area as it moved westward. There is nothing to situate the ruins or the site’s history in the more than 200 years since. The effect is that the ruins become a point of curiosity and vandalism, and the rest of the trail feels like an escape into nature, tucked away in the otherwise suburban landscape of north St. Louis County.<br><br>However, evidence of Saint Stanislaus’s history remains, both in the ruins and in the park’s name. After acquiring the land in the 1820s, the Society of Jesus constructed a boarding school for Native Americans with an eye toward training them as interpreters for missionaries. Native American boarding schools functioned as a tool for erasing Native American cultural practices that European settlers deemed “uncivilized.” This school is also where the Jesuits forcibly relocated enslaved families from Maryland to help with the mission. While the residential school was closed after less than a decade, the enslaved families remained when it was converted into a novitiate renamed Saint Stanislaus Seminary. Saint Stanislaus operated for the next 140 years. By 1998, the county had acquired the entire site that now operates as the conservation area.<br><br>This alternative tour guide to Saint Stanislaus Conservation Area and its surroundings juxtaposes the experiences of modern visitors to the park and the very human histories that shaped the landscape. It argues that the way recreation spaces narrate their histories (or don’t) alters visitors’ relationships to the land and to local history. <br><br><b>Please don't circulate - work in progress</b>14Hiddenblue38.81413606-90.38430081
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Gateway to the Westhttps://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/3FACFDEE-4C0D-4251-86B3-938134BD7B30-1-scaled.jpeg"Where the Rivers Meet," Saint Louis University Museum of Art (Photo by Margaret Smith)"Where the rivers meet, De Smet began." So says the sculpture “Where the Rivers Meet” that once stood on the campus of Saint Louis University and now permanently resides in the Saint Louis University Museum of Art.(1) Two hundred years ago, the American Confluence (the meeting of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers just north of present-day St. Louis) drew a band of Jesuits to this region, where they established a base for Catholicism's westward expansion. Invited by Bishop William DuBourg, whose diocese comprised the entire Louisiana Purchase, the earliest Jesuit mission included twelve Jesuits and six enslaved people who were forced to relocate from White Marsh, Maryland, leaving their children behind.(2) They settled on a piece of land purchased by Bishop DuBourg. Although some accounts emphasize their missionary zeal, a history written at Saint Stanislaus in the 1860s notes that the Jesuits in Maryland were facing extreme financial difficulties that likely also motivated their move.(3)<br><br>Today, the same confluence draws hikers to the many parks and recreation areas that populate the landscape of metro St. Louis. Visitors come seeking (relatively) pristine naturespaces, away from the built environment of the city and its surroundings.<br><br>(1) Anonymous, “Where the Rivers Meet,” Bronze, 1953, Saint Louis University Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO.<br><br>(2) “What We Have Learned,” Slavery, History, Memory and Reconciliation Project, Society of Jesus. https://www.jesuits.org/our-work/shmr/what-we-have-learned/. Accessed 1 March 2023.<br><br>(3) Juniors of the Province of Missouri at Saint Stanislaus Novitiate to the Provincial of Missouri Province, 1864, Saint Stanislaus Seminary Collection, Box 3.0148, Folder 14, Jesuit Archives and Research Center.141blue38.80224909-90.36451369
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Harnessing the Landhttps://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/howdershell.jpgSatellite view of Bryan Island (top left) in relation to Saint Stanislaus Seminary (Google Maps aerial imagery)https://maps.google.comThe land acquired for the Jesuits in Florissant, known in the 1820s as “Bishop’s Farm” or “Bishop’s Lands,” stretched roughly three miles westward from the present-day location of the seminary at 700 Howdershell Road in Florissant to Bryan Island.(1) The western portion of this land now comprises Saint Stanislaus Conservation Area. In the early days of the settlement, the land of the present-day park provided natural resources that the Jesuits harvested to support their mission.<br><br>When they arrived in Florissant, the land was densely forested and swampy, with one log hut that the Jesuits shared and two cabins, one of which was shared by the enslaved families who accompanied them. Recounting the early days of the institution, Jesuits writing in the 1860s described the process of gathering timber to build their early buildings:<br><br>“Soon they attempted to ameliorate their condition by the erection of a log house, but it was with great labors and inconveniences. The timber chosen for the purpose was still waving in the breeze, upon an island in the Missouri river. The distance was three miles through a trackless forest. Hills and swamps were to be overcome and paucity of means was weighing heavily upon them. The timber was felled, hewed and conveyed across a swift and deep stream, and thence with much trouble to the house. Fathers, brothers, novices labored with all the ardor which the warmest zeal could excite.”(2)<br><br>Notably missing from this account are the enslaved people who also labored on the construction of these buildings.<br><br>(1) Gilbert J. Garraghan, <i>The Jesuits of the Middle United States</i>, vol. 1 (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1983): 92-108.<br><br>(2) Juniors of the Province of Missouri at Saint Stanislaus Novitiate to the Provincial of Missouri Province, 1864, Saint Stanislaus Seminary Collection, Box 3.0148, Folder 14, Jesuit Archives and Research Center.142blue38.81890618-90.39264167
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Missionary Zeal
https://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/0BE3B7E7-F009-4EFA-9DB0-9E85664FD2C5-1-scaled.jpeg
Don Heard, "St. Regis Indian School, 1824," Saint Louis University Museum of ArtThe chief mission that drew the Jesuits to Missouri was the establishment of a new residential school for Native American children. Supported both by the church, which sought to evangelize Native Americans, and by the state, which sought to “civilize” or anglicize them, residential schools began to pop up all over the country in the 1820s. The impetus in most cases was the new “Civilization Fund” established by the federal government, which allocated $10,000 a year to subsidize the operation of schools.<br><br>Prior to the Jesuits’ arrival, Bishop DuBourg had secured promises from the government to pay $800 a year for the operation of a new school in Florissant, and the school opened its doors in 1824.(1) It immediately ran into financial difficulties when the government reduced its allocation, and financial troubles followed it for the next several years as the Civilization Fund was overdrawn repeatedly. Those troubles would be partially responsible for the school’s abrupt closure in 1832.(2)<br><br>Over its six years, the school took in dozens of pupils from at least the Sac, Ioway, and Osage nations. Just how those pupils were recruited is ambiguous. Although the school’s principle, Father Charles Van Quickenborne, touted the students’ and parents’ eagerness both for Christianity and for education, early documents suggest that students were “collected” by the government’s Indian agents.(3) In other schools and in later periods, it is clear that students were sometimes or often forcibly removed from their homes and families. Van Quickenborne was also strongly criticized even within the community for his severity with students.(4) Aside from issues of possible abuse and kidnapping, the fundamental premise of the residential schools was also rooted in the eradication of native cultures and languages.<br><br>(1) John C. Calhoun to Rev. Louis DuBourg, 21 March 1823, National Archives, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Letters Sent Relating to Indian Affairs, August 3, 1820-October 5, 1823, p. 392; Charles F. Van Quickenborn, S.J., Annual Report for Saint Stanislaus in 1824, National Archives, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Schools: 1824-5, pp. 418-421. <br><br>(2) Elbert Herring to Charles F. Van Quickenborn, 28 May 1832, Office of Indian Affairs regarding Saint Francis Regis Indian Seminary, 1819-1832, Saint Stanislaus Seminary Collection, Jesuit Archives and Research Center.<br><br>(3) Calhoun to DuBourg, 21 March 1823.<br><br>(4) Gabrielle Hayes, “Researchers unearth the painful history of a Native boarding school in Missouri,” PBS News, 28 April 2022, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/uncovering-the- traumatic-history-of-one-native-american-boarding-school-in-the-midwest. 163blue38.8010598-90.36512281
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Resilience in the Face of Crueltyhttps://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/brother-pete.jpg
An image of Peter Hawkins, labelled "Brother Pete," taken by William Grace, S.J., ca. 1905. Jesuit Archives and Research Center.
There are numerous stories of cruelty toward the enslaved residents of St Stanislaus, from the forced separation of parents from their children to brutal physical punishments to segregation even in religious services.(1) (A separate chapel was built for people of color at the seminary, separate from that used by the Jesuits.(2))<br><br>Following the Civil War and the end of slavery in the United States, the formerly enslaved families were freed. However, some remained at Saint Stanislaus. Peter Hawkins, who was born to enslaved parents at Saint Stanislaus in the same year that the residential school opened, was photographed at the seminary in 1905 as an elderly man. The image is captioned “Brother Pete, Born on Florissant premises as a slave.”(3) As Schmidt has argued, Hawkins’ presence at Saint Stanislaus until his death in 1907 should be read not as exculpation of Jesuit enslavement, but as a testament to the resilience of the Black community in Florissant.(4)<br><br>(1) Kelly L. Schmidt, “Enslaved Faith Communities in the Jesuits’ Missouri Mission,” U.S. Catholic Historian 37, no. 2 (2019): 49-81; Kelly L. Schmidt, Sean Ferguson, and Claire Peterson, “Enslaved People in the Jesuits’ Missouri Province,” Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project (2020), https://www.jesuits.org/our-work/shmr/what-we-have-learned/ missouri/. <br><br>(2) Garraghan, <i>Jesuits of the Middle United States</i>, p. 606<br><br>(3) An image of Peter Hawkins, labelled "Brother Pete," taken by William Grace, S.J., ca. 1905. Jesuit Archives and Research Center.<br><br>(4) Kelly L. Schmidt, “Peter Hawkins and His Family,” Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project, 2021, https://www.jesuits.org/our-work/shmr/family-histories/peter-hawkins/.174blue38.8010598-90.36512281
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Return to Naturehttps://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/holy-rosary.jpgHoly Rosary Church (Printed in Gilbert J. Garraghan, S.J., <i>Saint Ferdinand de Florissant: The Story of an Ancient Parish</i>)In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Jesuits of Saint Stanislaus began to operate the wooded western portion of their lands as a retreat space called Charbonniere Villa.(1) They built housing, religious buildings, and leisure spaces like a gazebo and swimming pool. Jesuits from all over the Midwest came to Charbonniere for reflection, religious discernment, and relaxation.<br><br>The name Charbonniere had been given to the area by Lewis and Clark because of the coal deposits on the riverbanks, visible from the expedition's boats.(2) The name evoked the natural landscape. Its new role as a retreat center reflected a desire to return to the land - a desire also expressed by contemporaries like John Muir, who sought to preserve wilderness spaces in the United States and turn them into parks.(3)<br><br>However, this wasn't untouched wilderness - and of course, many of the parks that were founded around this period were built on land that had been in use by Native Americans and by settlers for centuries. Even as the Jesuits used the area as a natural space, they transformed it through their building projects.<br><br>(1) National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Charbonier Bluff, National Archives, Records of the National Park Service, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63820246. <br><br>(2) Journal of William Clark, 16 May 1804, https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1804-05-16.<br><br>(3) Donald Worster, “John Muir and the Modern Passion for Nature,” Environmental History 10, no. 1 (2005): 8-19.538.81137101-90.39192862
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A Modern Naturescapehttps://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/st-stan-sign-rotated.jpgThe sign at the entrance of the conservation area, outlining the state agencies responsible for creating the park (Photo by Margaret Smith)Charbonierre Villa remained in use as a retreat space for several decades, but by the end of the 20th century the Society of Jesus had sold off all of their properties in Florissant, including both Charbonierre (previously the farm) and the school and novitiate in town. 812 acres of Charbonierre wound up in the possession of Saint Louis County, which preserved its most recent form by turning it into a park. (1)<br><br>Today, you can hike the five miles of trails Saint Stanislaus Conservation Area. If you do, though, you won't encounter any mention of the Jesuits, Charbonierre Villa, Saint Regis School, or Saint Stanislaus Seminary. Nevertheless, you'll be surrounded by the material remnants of the area's history.<br><br>(1) St. Stanislaus Park, Missouri Department of Conservation, https://stlouiscountymo.gov/st-louis-county-departments/parks/about-us/park-history-documents/stanislaus-history/. 176blue38.811716-90.39488296
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A Fragmentary Historyhttps://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/medallion-rotated.jpgThe medallion commemorating Lewis and Clark's expedition embedded in the pavement (Photo by Margaret Smith)The only reference to the park's history is a medallion set into the concrete path at the entrance of the park. This medallion notes that Lewis and Clark passed by the area (although they did not land). A nearby plaque describes the coal seams and natural environment.177blue38.81283692-90.39341144
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Mysterious Ruins
https://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/gazebo.jpg
The ruins of a gazebo on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a scenic vista (Photo by Margaret Smith)As you walk along the trail, you'll encounter multiple sets of ruins. These are clearly of interest to visitors. But without any plaques or other interpretive material, these sites lose their context and their significance. They become sites of curiosity at best and vandalism at worst. A broken trowel and a hole in the foundations of one site attest that curiosity can easily turn destructive.178blue38.8168581-90.39149986
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Complex Historieshttps://iris.siue.edu/leaflet-storymaps/wp-content/uploads/sites/166/2024/10/grotto.jpgThe remains of a grotto, where a statue of the Virgin Mary would have stood (Photo by Margaret Smith)Of course there's nothing really mysterious about these ruins. They're the remnants of the Jesuits' built environment: a gazebo where visitors relaxed, a grotto that held a statue of the Virgin Mary, a bridge across a muddy creek.<br><br>Demystifying and contextualizing these ruins isn't just about satiating visitors' curiosity (although that's certainly important!). The lack of signage encourages uncritical engagement or disengagement altogether from the people harmed here. This is the case for so many recreational areas. They take on a second, sanitized life. The Jesuits are currently reckoning with their institutional history, and the histories they are surfacing raise points of inquiry and reflection for the broader community.(1) As modern visitors take to the trails in search of nature (echoing, perhaps, the same yearning of the Jesuits who retreated there a century ago), the built environment of Saint Stanislaus can and should trouble our perceptions of it as a space for recreation and prompt us to interrogate our individual and collective relationships both to the land and to local history.<br><br>(1) "Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation," Society of Jesus, https://www.jesuits.org/our-work/shmr/.139blue38.81730115-90.3907703
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