St. Louis

===City founding===
{{Main|History of St. Louis (1763–1803)}}
The founding of St. Louis was preceded by a trading business between [[Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent]] and [[Pierre Laclède|Pierre Laclède (Liguest)]] in the fall of 1763. St. Maxent invested in a Mississippi River expedition led by Laclède, who searched for a location to base the company's fur trading operations. Though [[Ste. Genevieve, Missouri|Ste. Genevieve]] was already established as a trading center, he sought a place less prone to flooding. He found an elevated area overlooking the flood plain of the Mississippi River, not far south from its confluence with the Missouri and Illinois rivers. In addition to having an advantageous natural drainage system, there were nearby forested areas to supply timber and grasslands which could easily be converted for agricultural purposes. This place, declared Laclède, "might become, hereafter, one of the finest cities in America." He dispatched his 14-year-old stepson, [[Auguste Chouteau]], to the site, with the support of 30 settlers in February 1764.<ref name="wade3">{{cite book |last1=Wade |first1=Richard C.|title=The Urban Frontier: The Rise of Western Cities, 1790–1830 |date=1959 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-252-06422-4 |pages=3–4|edition=1996 Illini Books}}</ref>

Laclède arrived at the future town site two months later and produced a plan for St. Louis based on the New Orleans street plan. The default block size was 240 by 300 feet, with just three long avenues running parallel to the west bank of the Mississippi. He established a public corridor of 300 feet fronting the river, but later this area was released for private development.<ref name=wade3/>

[[File:St-louis-attack.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of a mural entitled Indian Attack on the Village of St. Louis, 1780, depicting the Battle of St. Louis.|During the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was unsuccessfully attacked by British-allied Native American in the 1780 [[Battle of St. Louis]].]]

For the first few years of St. Louis's existence, the city was not recognized by any of the governments. Although the settlement was thought to be under the control of the Spanish government, no one asserted any authority over it, and thus St. Louis had no local government. This vacuum led Laclède to assume civil control, and all problems were disposed in public settings, such as communal meetings. In addition, Laclède granted new settlers lots in town and the surrounding countryside. In hindsight, many of these original settlers thought of these first few years as "the golden age of St. Louis".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Van Ravenswaay |first1=Charles |title=St. Louis: An Informal History of the City and Its People, 1764-1865 |date=1991 |publisher=Missouri History Museum |isbn=9780252019159 |pages=26}}</ref> In 1763, the Native Americans in the region around St. Louis began expressing dissatisfaction with the victorious British, objecting to their refusal to continue to the French tradition of supplying gifts to Natives. Odawa chieftain [[Pontiac (Odawa leader)|Pontiac]] began forming a pan-tribal alliance to counter British control over the region, but received little support from the indigenous residents of St. Louis. By 1765, the city began receiving visits from representatives of the British, French, and Spanish governments.

St. Louis was transferred to the [[French First Republic]] in 1800 (although all of the colonial lands continued to be administered by Spanish officials), then sold by the French to the U.S. in 1803 as part of the [[Louisiana Purchase]]. St. Louis became the capital of, and gateway to, the new territory. Shortly after [[Three Flags Day|the official transfer of authority]] was made, the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson. The expedition departed from St. Louis in May 1804 along the Missouri River to explore the vast territory. There were hopes of finding a water route to the Pacific Ocean, but the party had to go overland in the Upper West. They reached the Pacific Ocean via the Columbia River in summer 1805. They returned, reaching St. Louis on September 23, 1806. Both Lewis and Clark lived in St. Louis after the expedition. Many other explorers, settlers, and trappers (such as [[Ashley's Hundred]]) would later take a similar route to the West.