POTA Notes: Ste. Genevieve, Missouri Winter 2024 Trip
Saint Louis winters are relatively mild, and Decembers usually get a few days of nice, light jacket weather. We took advantage of one of those days to visit Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, a small town about an hour south of Saint Louis.
# Kaskaskia Bell Memorial State Historic Site (US-12080)
The history of Kaskaskia is fascinating to me. At one point in the 19th century, it was the capital of Illinois and a bustling town. After extensive flooding in 1844 and 1881, the Mississippi River changed course and the original town was abandoned. The Kaskaskia Bell is one of the few remaining artifacts from the original town. For more information about the history of Kaskaskia, I recommend the Mythic Mississippi Project.
I knew the Kaskaskia Bell had a memorial to commemorate the bell, but I noticed it wasn’t a POTA park. I emailed the Illinois POTA mapping rep and he added it in less than 24 hours. We arrived at the memorial two days later. It’s not immediately clear where the park boundaries are, but the Randolph County GIS data provides a good reference. Basically, the park encompasses the memorial building and the pit toilet building behind it. I set up a camping chair at the bottom of the park wheelchair ramp with my vertical in the grass next to me. Any concerns I had about being in people’s way were unfounded; we didn’t see a single person the entire time I was on the air.
As I was packing up, a van pulled up and asked if I was activating the park. A bit confused, I said I was and asked if they were amateur radio operators. It turns out David (N9VFR) and Dennis (AD9WM) had noticed the new park appear on the list and had come to activate it. We chatted for a bit and used our handheld radios to make QSOs with each other on 2m, 220, and 440. While we were chatting, a large black dog calmly walked up to us and enthusiastically sniffed us and all our gear. He also peed on one of the (thankfully weatherproof) boxes that David and Dennis had arrived with. He was very friendly and had a collar but would not leave us alone. David’s video of his chat with us and activation can be found here.
In summary, the cell service was good, the pit toilets were appreciated, and the memorial was nicely maintained. Parking space is limited, but the tiny village seems very quiet, and I doubt parking would ever be an issue.
After activating the Kaskaskia Bell, we drove to Ste. Genevieve for some lunch and to activate two more parks. We parked at the Main Street Park, which has two car charging stations behind an enclosed public bathroom. A few blocks away is the Ste. Genevieve Welcome Center which seems to be primarily run by the National Park Service but also has some general information about the village. We bought some stickers and chatted with the park ranger on duty. She was very friendly but said the park administrator doesn’t allow amateur radio operators to operate from the park. I don’t remember her exact explanation but I believe there was some concern about how the radio transmissions would affect the buildings. That didn’t make any sense to me so I said I’d try to find a place to se tup that was as far from a building as possible and would leave immediately if asked. She did mention that the Beauvais-Amoureux House was closed for repairs.
# Felix Vallé House State Historic Site (US-3348)
We went to lunch a few blocks away and then walked to the Felix Vallé House. The park office is at 200 Merchant St and the staff had no issue with me setting up and operating from the yard. The property consists of the house on one corner of a yard that takes up about a quarter of an acre. There are no grown trees on the property and there are power lines along both Merchant and S 2nd Street so using a vertical on a tripod or pedestrian mobile with something like an Elecraft AX-1 is likely the only option. The staff do offer tours of the house, but in the 30 minutes it took me to activate the park, I didn’t see anyone else.
# St. Genevieve (Beauvais House) National Historical Park (US-7984)
The Ste. Genevieve Historical Park consists of a few properties around St. Gen. We had been to the visitor’s center in town but there’s an administrative building closer to the edge of town at 339 St Marys Rd. Given my earlier experience with the park ranger at the visitor’s center I wanted to be a bit more careful about where I set up. The administrative building has a large gravel parking lot right next to the Bequette-Ribault House with a large, open field behind it. Google Maps showed that the administrative building was part of the park that surrounds the Beauvais-Amoureux House so I figured I was good to go. I se tup in my car in the gravel parking lot with my MC-750 vertical on the roof. QSOs came a bit slower, but that’s pretty common for that set up.
