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Creve Coeur Park is the oldest and largest St. Louis County park, and one of the most popular. Its main feature is beautiful Creve Coeur Lake, one of the largest oxbow lakes in Missouri. Crescent-shaped oxbow lakes form when a meandering section of river is cut off from the main channel. Bring your binoculars when you come. |
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#1. Start at the upper (Dorsett Rd.) level of the park. Take the one-way loop road across from the ball field. When you’re almost half-way around the loop, start looking in the tree line on your right. Look up and around carefully for the white oak with an unusual “natural graft”. This happened when two branches grew into each other. It sort of looks like a little bridge. Did you find the natural graft? Yes or no? ____________ |
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#2. As you come out of the loop road, you’ll see a brick building (Corporate Picnic Site #1). Around 1900, Creve Coeur Park was a big resort area. It was like Lake of the Ozarks is today. Streetcars brought carloads of people to the park from St. Louis. The brick building was an electric substation for the streetcars, and the “end of the line”. Where did the streetcar line begin? ________________ |
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Zoom Photo of Natural Graft |
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#3. Find Greensfelder Memorial Shelter. This shelter has been described as looking like a mushroom or space ship. There’s a great view overlooking the lake from here! What year was the memorial dedicated? _____________ |
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#4. Find Dripping Springs. According to legend, there was a Native American princess named Memetonwish who fell in love with a French fur trapper. When the trapper did not return her love she was devastated, and threw herself off the springs to her death. At that moment, it is said, the lake changed its form into the shape of a broken |
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heart. Creve Coeur is French for “Broken Heart”. Did you find Dripping Springs? Yes or no? _____________ |
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#5. Go bird watching. Creve Coeur Lake and the surrounding wetlands are great places for spotting year-round and migrating water birds. Here’s a photo checklist of birds you might see, depending on the day and time of year. This is where your binoculars will come in handy! |
