A marina for St. Louis? A Mississippi River enthusiast makes the case

There are 21 marinas along the Mississippi River from St. Charles County to Alton, Illinois — but not one on the shores of the city of St. Louis. Dean Klinkenberg thinks that’s a mistake. In a NextSTL.com essay titled “St. Louis Deserves a Marina,” the mystery novelist and travel writer argues the city is missing out on recreational boaters and wrongly ceding water access to industry.

A longtime Mississippi River enthusiast, Klinkenberg knows many people will be skeptical. But, he said, many of the arguments against marinas fail to account for no-frills marinas that can adapt to changing water levels.

The marina in Kimmswick provides a great example. “You take a couple of barges, just strap them together and you put some gas pumps and maybe a little store on there,” Klinkenberg explained on Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air. “Then those barges can float with the river and rise and fall as the river does.” If major flooding is predicted, he noted, you can even tow them away before it hits.

The bigger argument, then, might be the dangers of the Mississippi. Thanks to extensive dredging beginning in the 1930s, the channel is much faster than in the days Samuel Clemens worked on it. Thanks to that engineering, St. Louis is now the third-busiest inland port in the U.S. — and hazards are not limited to swift currents.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2022-02-15/a-marina-for-st-louis-a-mississippi-river-enthusiast-makes-the-case