Commentary: A Corner in the Midwest

St.Louis has traditionally been described as the “gateway to the west”. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase by the French to the United States literally put the city on map as a staging ground for further territorial expansion and one of the earliest seeds of the “Manifest Destiny” that would sweep through the adolescent nation in the years to come. It is fun to imagine that my arrival to St.Louis in 2016 was brought on by a hundred plus year old remnant of that belief but the truth is, I was brought here by an entirely different whisper. There is no denying the phrase “gateway to the west”; It is a part of the city’s inherent make up. Geographical genetics have made it abundantly clear that the Mississippi; the river that makes St.Louis an inland port, marks the earliest boundary of what we typical think of as the “west”. This, combined with the presence of Interstate 70 headed to Kansas City and Interstate 44 snaking its way southwest to Tulsa truly authenticate the city’s historical moniker.



One thing I’ve learned since being here is that geography is often more relative in the minds of people than as an observable fact or scientific conclusion. I have met some that view the city as an east coast invention trying to make itself a westerly product. Others believe that it doesn’t represent midwestern culture in the United States at all and that its status as “gateway to the west” is merely self promotion. There…