5- 1803- LOUISIANA PURCHASE MEMORIAL

5
1803- LOUISIANA PURCHASE MEMORIAL
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park, home of the Arch, was originally to honor Thomas Jefferson and his fateful purchase of the Louisiana Territories in 1803.
When Robert Livingston went to Paris in 1803 all he intended to negotiate for was the
port of New Orleans and the small areas around it. But Napoleon, in need of money to fund European wars and having had enough of the New World, wanted to sell the entire Louisiana Territory, which Livingston and Jefferson ended getting as a bonus at a bargain basement price.

Had this purchase never happened, it is quite possible that St Louisans would have continued speaking French and that a different country would have evolved, (or been absorbed into Canada), and the United States would never have been as powerful and influential as it eventually became.

The purchase of the Louisiana Territorities more than doubled the area of the United States and cemented its destiny into a global power with a dominant piece of the resources of North America, especially the vital river systems of the Mississippi and the Missouri. This purchase made river commerce much easier, making St Louis (along with New Orleans) the centers of the developing nation.

Only once the purchase was completed did Jefferson decide to hire Lewis and Clark to explore the new territory via the great rivers that make up its heartland.

The museum of Westward expansion beneath the Arch does a great job in detailing the era of the Louisiana Purchase and the century that followed it, but something also is needed above ground to focus solely on the Purchase and its immense impact.

To commemorate the Louisiana Purchase, a large relief map of the United States could be constructed near the arch grounds. On the East would be a large statue of Thomas Jefferson, and on the West would be a statue of Lewis and Clark. In between, out of reach of the public, will be a re-creation of the Louisiana territory. I envision a series of fountains tracing the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and creating a river of their own, culminating in the largest fountain at the base near New Orleans.

To see a scale model of this new land and how it changed the US as it stood at 1803 will help to emphasize how important this transaction was to our history and culture. People standing on all four sides and looking in on the new territories might gain an appreciation for what the settlers were looking at themselves way back then.