10 times the Mississippi River froze over in St. Louis
The river froze over at St. Louis at least 10 times from 1831 to 1938, when completion of the Alton Lock and Dam corralled much of the ice from the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers.
Mississippi River Ice
The Wiggins Co. ferry William Ruprecht on the St. Louis levee, north of the Municipal (later MacArthur) Bridge on Jan. 6, 1928, hemmed in by an ice jam on the Mississippi River. Ice completely covered the river that winter, as it did at least 10 times from 1831 to 1936. (Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
Ice almost completely covers the river, looking north from the St. Louis Levee toward the Eads Bridge, on Jan. 30, 1931. The current managed to move the ice. (Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
People walking across the frozen Mississippi River from East St. Louis to St. Louis on Feb. 12, 1936. The Municipal (later MacArthur) Bridge piers are in the background. (Lou Phillips/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
R. D. Schmickle of the U.S. Geological Survey prepares to operate a device that measures the speed of the Mississippi's current on Feb. 22, 1936. He is lowering the torpedo-shaped instrument into a hole cut into the river ice atop the middle of the channel. (Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Mississippi River Ice
U.S. Geological Survey engineers measure current over the channel on Feb. 22, 1936, near the foot of Davis Street, in Carondelet. (Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
A man examines some of the chunks of ice along the St. Louis riverfront on Feb. 26, 1936, after the ice jam across the Misssissippi river began breaking up. (Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
The breakup of the ice jam on Feb. 26, 1936, mangled the Missouri Pacific Railroad approach to a ferry landing at the foot of Davis Street, in Carondelet. The ferry ran to East Carondelet, Ill. (Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
Ice jams the river and the lock at the old Alton Lock and Dam No. 26 on Feb. 11, 1940. The city of Alton is across the river in this aerial photo taken from the Missouri side. Completion of the dam in 1937 permanently slowed the flow of ice from the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers, although Missouri River ice continues to flow unabated past St. Louis. The Melvin Price Lock and Dam, dedicated downstream from the old dam in 1994, dutifully continues to hold back ice. (E. J. Burkhardt/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
People stand on ice in the river away from the St. Louis riverbank near the Municipal (MacArthur) Bridge, circa 1940. (Harry Hoffman/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
A towboat pushes three barges slowly through ice jamming the Mississippi River just above the Alton Lock and Dam in February 1949. A thaw had broken loose ice along the river above Alton, and the loose and jagged chunks drifted downstream to into the Alton pool. (Arthur Witman/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
Barge tows stalled by ice on the Mississippi River, just above Alton, on Jan. 28, 1955. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
Illinois River ice merges with Mississippi River ice at their confluence near Elsah, Ill., nestled in a valley in the bluffs on the lower left. The campus of Principia College is visible on top of the bluff. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
Ice cakes float downstream, nearly filling the Mississippi River just beneath the Eads Bridge on Jan. 23, 1959. The excursion boat S.S. Admiral and the old railroad trestle along Wharf Street (now Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard) are in the background. (Jack January/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
A harbor tug, left, and a bigger towboat grind their way through ice at the upstream entance to the lock at the Alton Lock and Dam in early March 1960. At right is a barge stuck in the ice. (Robert Graul/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
Ice cakes drift downstream beneath the Eads Bridge on Jan 23, 1962. The view is from above the Illinois riverbank, with the MacArthur Bridge in the background. (Jack January/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
Three barges locked in ice on the Mississippi River above the Alton Lock and Dam on Feb. 8, 1962. The view is toward the Missouri riverbank. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
Barges are caught in ice jamming the canal pool leading to the Chain of Rocks Lock 27 at Granite City on Jan. 23, 1963. The aerial view is to the south, toward St. Louis. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
Ice encrusts the Illinois riverbank and floats downstream in the Mississippi River on Jan. 29, 1966, as a cold wave assaults St. Louis. It was -8 degrees at 8 a.m. The Gateway Arch, which had been topped three months earlier, still had the construction cranes that crawled up the legs on special tracks to build the Arch. Other cranes are atop the Mansion House towers under construction downtown. (Lou Phillips/Post-Dispatch)
Mississippi River Ice
A towboat grinds through ice above the Alton Lock and Dam on Feb. 12, 1966, to reach and clear some of the 16 barges that were set adrift and then locked by an ice jam. The helicopter resting on a barge in the foreground had delivered a pump to drain water from some of the barges, all of which held grain. (Scott C. Dine/Post-Dispatch)
People scrambled across the Mississippi on Feb. 7, 1936, at Gasconade Street in south St. Louis and, a few days later, near the Municipal (now MacArthur) Bridge downtown.
It started out wet on Jan. 30, 1982, then dumped 14 inches of snow on St. Louis.