Nick Lazaris

If you are in St. Louis area and have a few hours to spend, this is a great historical site to visit, although it's off the beaten path. This fort was built by the French in 1720 to help manage the Illinois territory from this Mississippi River location. The Fort is built with limestone and laid out in a traditional European way. It must have been amazing for the local native Americans to see because they built nothing out of stone and brick. Included in the buildings is a powder magazine and of course there were cannons which together with the muzzleloading guns would have seemed amazing to the native Americans. This is a very pleasant site with picnic grounds but it takes about an hour to get to and you'll probably only stay less rhan an hour.

I expected to simply see the gigantic machinery used to pump fresh water to Boston that came from the hinterlands. And I did see that - awesome machinery that dated to the 1880s powered by coal fired steam engines. But the real story here is of the importance of fresh water to the health, growth and fire safety of modern urban communities. There are lots of educational information on this throughout. This ranged from the new instrumentation to check water quality developed right here in Boston to the aquatic systems dating to the 1840s that brought fresh water from distant reservoirs. And you saw photos of how the civic leaders used this as a cause for civic pride and recreation. The building is a glorious design and in the late 1800s there was a beautiful carriageway for weekend R&R to allow escape from the congested city. A wonderful showcase of a bygone era.

Small but very quality works and presentation/display around rotating themes. Plan to spend up to an hour unless there is something specific you are interested in. The Rose is much more than a small university art museum home for donated works. Be sure to register (free) on line before visiting.