MoDOT investigates history at base of PSB ramps

Instead of the distinctive fedora and leather jacket, he jauntily sports a bright yellow hard hat and florescent work vest.

And fortunately, the most dangerous thing around him is the noise from the nearby trains and the occasional passing tractor trailer truck.

But like the famed fictional archeologist, Michael Meyer, MoDOT senior preservation specialist, found himself intrigued and excited by history at a young age.

“I have never grown up – this is something I wanted to do as a kid. I have a job that fascinates and intrigues me. I can’t imagine doing anything else,” he said.

Meyer leads a team of preservation specialists for the department who are currently investigating a portion of cleared land between several elevated railroad tracks and the Poplar Street Bridge.  They are preserving a portion of St. Louis history that may be impacted by next year’s construction to widen the ramp from northbound I-55 to the eastbound bridge.

“What we do is more than archeology – we are tasked to consider how our projects may impact the history the general public wishes to preserve,” said Meyer.

Currently, Meyer and his four person team are investigating a mid-19^th century settler’s home constructed over a mid-18^th century French settler, a stone’s throw away from the Poplar Street Bridge ramps.

“We were able to determine through a records search that a French soldier built a home here in about 1765. Then, about the mid-1860s an American settler built a three story home in about the same location.  We wanted to see what we could find of both homes. This was a very significant historical site and potentially a fragile one. Most of the earth over the site was about one to two feet deep. So, there was a distinct possibility that historical features could be damaged by something as simple as a loaded truck driving over the area,” said Meyer.

Meyer reads the patterns and lines of earth in the dig site like most people read a map. He points out features of the two homes based on a different shade or type of earth that has been uncovered. Most of the time, he is excited about the history that those shades or types of earth represent. That is, until he points to several thick, darker lines of earth that cut across the area that he identifies as looter’s trenches.

“That was where collectors dug up the area about six or seven years ago looking for bottles to ‘preserve’ them. About the same time, a historical building was demolished in the area and they probably decided to come here and look for bottles.  They may be preserving history, but are disturbing a much more important historical site to find something commonplace. In doing so, they make it harder to interpret what happened in the past,” Meyer said.

This work complements work done before around the area.  Meyer says the team is creating a database of property around the St. Louis area from the French Colonial time.

“Historically, people settle and travel around the area for the same reasons then as we do now.  It’s important to study how people dealt with the same problems in the past – infrastructure, bridges, sewer systems. We make a mistake if we don’t take a look at how people in the past solved the same problems we face,” he said.