If one person felt slighted or insulted by another they would issue a challenge, if the challenge was accepted then the challenged party would set the parameters for the duel, location, time, weapons, and distance in the case of guns being chosen. The practice of dueling was an important part of early American history, with figures such as President Andrew Jackson famous for settling disputes of honor with the deadly system. This newly formed island was in the middle of the river, so the island quickly became a site of illegal activities and transactions because neither Missouri nor Illinois laws governed it.Īccording to the Missouri History Museum, the island hosted everything from boxing matches to cockfights, but what makes the island so infamous and gave it the moniker, Bloody Island, were the numerous duels that took place there. “I find it so fascinating that this slow geographic change of the Mississippi could encourage such a weird cultural phenomenon in St. “Bloody Island popped up in the middle of the Mississippi in the 1790s, as a result of the Mississippi’s current shifting and piling up silt and river debris,” said Wanko. The emergence of Bloody Island is interesting in and of itself, seemingly appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the river. This excerpt of an article, taken from an 1838 edition of the Iowa News, published in the then-Wisconsin Territory, shows just how intrigued writers and reporters were by the dangers of Bloody Island’s shores. “Bloody Island, in the midst of the rushing stream, stretches out its barren, sandy shores, and gloomy as the graveyard! ah! a graveyard! and when the associations connected with its dark history are permitted through the mind, the appellation is no misnomer. The island and sometimes-violent activities that happened there were notorious all across the country. The mystique of Bloody Island was well known at the time and not contained just to St. Louis, beyond the obvious trade and commerce connections we so often hear about.” Louis and its mighty river history that seems to be forgotten almost entirely is the story of Bloody Island, an island-like sandbar in the river two centuries ago that was a popular local site for dueling and illegal activities.Īndrew Wanko of the Missouri Historical Society pointed out the peculiarity of the history of Bloody Island: “It’s an interesting story of how the Mississippi River affected so many aspects of life in St. Louis the city it is today, but one part of St. Louis will always be tied to is the Mississippi River, one of the most important waterways in the country. One iconic historic symbol of commerce and mobility St.

Louis loves remembering and celebrating its role in early American history as one of the most important western cities and one of the last centers of civilization for those venturing further west.

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