Rolling Along the River in NoCo

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St. Louis, approved Missouri is a river city that’s spent hundreds of years trying to ignore its genesis by blotting out the unignorable. But there’s a remote section of North St. Louis County that has to end because the river says so. And in that wilderness are a few folks who don’t pay extra for a bluff-side river view because it’s part of their backyard.

Head out New Halls Ferry Road in deep Florissant and you’ll come to Shackelford Road. While at that stop, page look across the intersection to the left and see the last remains of the once-grand entrance to the Desloge Mansion, now a weedy, gravel road blocked off with a utilitarian metal gate.  Then continue up New Halls Ferry, where you will come to an undeniable line of demarcation between mannered society and where the river reigns. The house above, ancient but occupied, is the welcome mat to a stretch of road engulfed by trees, and where most everyone has made the wise decision to live on the hilly side because to live on the other side is to be a part of the river more times than a body can be comfortable with.

But there are 4 remaining homesteaders who did build on the other side of the road, smack against the thin lip between blacktop and river. For about 8 months out of the year they are hiding behind water-logged forestry, shadowy even on the brightest day. There is no sidewalk, so you can’t casually stroll by and observe these stubborn souls living where no one else has the guts to. And it’s no exaggeration to say that if you did make the choice to traipse through the mossy mud on their side of the road, a shotgun blast warning could be a standard feature.

New Halls Ferry Road ends at the straight where the Missouri River seems to be logically heading toward a union with the Mississippi River in what would become Elsah, Illinois, but a radical change of mind caused it to high tail it out of there. But the Mississippi – a river that was having second thoughts about committing to a southerly direction – took chase after the Missouri, cornering it about 13 miles to South East. A Confluence was born, and then the Mississippi River runs down stream to New Orleans.

Look at this map and see that New Halls Ferry was making a crazy beeline into the river before it thought better of such a foolish notion.

Right at this point is the easiest and quickest public access into the churning brown waters of the Missouri. A casual stroll can turn into a suck down into the undertow. For a short spell we lived less than a half mile from this point, up Douglas Road.

I was waiting to start 1st grade, so to a young girl coming from the dense, inner ring suburbs of Jennings and Ferguson, this was a wonderland of endless forests, swarms of lightning bugs brighter than the dusk-to-dawn lamp post in the front yard, a loping Trouble puppy and my first Sugar pony trotting alongside a red gelding named Rusty in the back yard horse paddock.

But during our two years, there was a late summer locust invasion that thoroughly freaked out my thoroughly Soulard urban mother, livestock along this stretch of river road were poisoned to death in a personal vendetta, and dead bodies were dumped onto that last sliver of land between the road and the river.

North Countians over a certain age still recall the 1971 murder of two Radio Shack employees abducted after they closed up shop. I remember watching my folks bid goodnight to guests as the Channel 4 evening news followed the nightly “It’s 10 o’clock – do you know here your children are?” with the report that their bodies had just been found in the woods between New Halls Ferry and the Missouri River. That’s right down the street! We all shivered at the thought of the closeness of depraved souls wading into places we knew you should never go, rolling bodies into the deep, damp unknown.

I lingered on the thought of detectives gingerly stepping through rotted trees and underbrush in the ominous cold indigo with nothing but flashlights, looking for something grisly, second-guessing their line of employment. I couldn’t fall asleep that night, and for every night after that, as another murder was reported, I was sure their body was laying 2,500 yards from our house.

A North County rite of passage is the legend of the Bubble Heads, who seem to exist in all those pockets where land gives way to river, as if the unrelenting humidity swells the heads of the unhinged. They claim that Bubble Heads were along this stretch of New Halls Ferry. I’d rather run into one of those mythical creatures than the real world facts of murdered bodies – known and unknown, human and bovine – that have littered the area. They claim the ghosts of young boys who drowned in the long- abandoned quarry (right before you get to the still-operating quarry) can be heard as the sun sets. All of it adds up to a low hum of ominous that affects even those who know nothing of the area until they stumble upon it during a Sunday drive.

Passersby who notice these abodes tucked behind the trees in front of the river comment on their rumpled state. But as with any riverside community, there is an acceptable level of decay, because you can’t stop Ole Man River from peeling your new paint job and curling your wood siding. For these 4 homesteads along New Halls Ferry, they probably have to sweep river water out the basement after just 2 days of steady rain, so what’s the point of being overly manicured when the river will always chew your nails to the quick?

For the 1910 home above, if someone has a good throwing arm, they could lob a baseball into the Missouri from the back porch. They’re sited so close to the road because they had no other option. But year after year, the option to not live there doesn’t seem to cross their mind, except when the river and old age has eroded a home into the ground.

During the last 40 years along this short stretch of road hugging the river, once occupied land has reverted to vacant swamp, but the family still holds the property rights. Unlike the flood-prone portions of, say, Chesterfield Valley, developers aren’t clamoring to build new upon the unbuildable. When the sound of the river can sometimes drown out the TV with the windows open, logic prevails in the hearts of those not cut out to live on the river.

17 thoughts on “Rolling Along the River in NoCo

  1. I just recently moved into a ‘40s home on Douglas road. Very cool looking into to the historic nature of the area. Very neat the shackleford/Douglas rd area has been remapped for a very long time.

  2. My high school friend’s dad and two sisters found the remains of the Radio Shack employees while searching for a Christmas tree on Desloge’s property…these Desloges were descendants of the people who the town of Desloge was named after…the underground ballroom DID have an underground tunnel from the mansion to the ballroom…there is a swimming pool that was built in the woods a distance from the mansion…it used to be visible on aerial maps in the past, not sure about now…several Desloge siblings lived in other modest houses on the property, but the residences were eventually sold to non-family folks…when the mansion was sold to a non-family member, that owner was a paper broker who dealt in paper world-wide…their offices were in the huge carriage house just off of the mansion, where the owner lived…he traveled very much throughout the world for business, so he spent more time away from the mansion than there…I have a lot of fond memories relating to the area…

  3. I still drive back there on a weekly basis. It’s so beautiful. I’ve always wondered what was there at the Boeing Leadership center. There is no other place in St. Louis like this, I’ve found. I used googlemaps to get a birds eye view and saw an Eye staring back at me. It freaked me out but was super cool at the same time. Not sure of its significance to the leadership center. I’ve always told my husband I’d like to live back there…not in the River houses of course but in the general area. I know NOCO doesn’t have the best reputation but those homes and that area are just wonderful in my eyes Reading all of the comments and the article makes me feel like a part of a secret NOCO society. LOL Thanks everyone.

  4. All my friends from Ferguson, use to sneak on to the property late at night, ( I always had an earlier curfew), teenagers. They’d tell me the stories, Dobermenpinzers guard dogs chasing them out. Later I got a gig with a catering co. & at last, I got in there. Where we went was not the main house, but closer to the river, it was all concrete.Oil paintings on the walls & long halls, kitchen off the main dining, a big veranda, grand piano with Russ David playing. This was a big St. Louis Historical Society event, hosted by the Desloge family. My friend said there was a billards room, swimming rm., ballroom, everything underground. Also, stairs to get to a boat to make a secret getaway in case the Nazi’s came. I wanted to sneak around, but he didn’t want to get busted & lose his job.

  5. And, don’t tell me that whole area wasn’t a hotbed of moonshiners, running booze across the river, to Alton.during prohibition.

  6. Further, I think The Bubbleheads did exist; much the same as the “family” in the movie Deliverance.
    I believe they used to use dogs to run game out to the poibt, through the natural culvert, which Carrico now runs through.

  7. I believe I have been into what one commenter refers to as the (BOEING) “basement ballroom” w/ floor-to-celing glass.
    It is an enormous room, furnished w/ high- end cafeteria tables & chairs. The bar is still there. Looks ss though it is used, mostly, for viewing diners from the kitchen, but, could occasionally be made to function as a wet bar.
    In fact, I have been all over in that building on the hillside, (which BOEING now calls The Leadership Center), and, in what sounds like it used to be the main house. We cleaned the windows (in & out) there (ICON). We used a lot if special equipment.
    We accessed the ballroom level from above, via elevators. If I had of the fabled tunnel, I would have looked, specifically, for it. It did seem very likely that there would have been a tunnel leading back, into the hillside, from in the dining room near the elevators.
    That property is very low security and vould probably be explored w/ little scrutiny.

  8. Great poetic take on this fascinating area of our city. I grew up off of Shackleford and passed by, explored, and was intrigued with these roads for years. I had t really thought of it until reading this article, but North County explains my general desire to always take a drive down a peculiar road, wherever I am. It’s really unique growing up in Norco – it’s so incredibly diverse and you never know what you’re going to find. You don’t get that kind of exposure in most of the city. Thanks for capturing the mystery of it in your piece.

  9. The Bubble Heads were on Carrico Road, not New Halls Ferry. Nobody ever drowned in the long abandoned quarry. The house you have pictured at 17257 New Halls Ferry has never flooded nor had water in it with the exception of the flood of 1993 when the basement did get water in it. I do believe the poor men from Radio Shack were not found between New Halls Ferry and the river, but rather in the woods on the other side of New Halls Ferry, somewhat down the road from the first house you have pictured. There is no public access to the river in this area. If you leave the road, you are trespassing!

  10. Loved the story. I lived in the first house pictured for three years in the early 70s, although I heard a rumor that it has been damaged due to a fire recently. I remember that night of the murders and the bodies found right down the street and my Dad being involved in it since he was a detective with the St. Louis County PD at that time. Other than that, it was a great area to live in at that time and I have fond memories of riding my bike on old dirt and gravel roads and walking in the woods.

  11. As a Central grad and former cruiser of Douglas Road it was great to see this post. Knew a few Central kids living around the river in the 80s. Always appreciated the rustic quality of the houses. I do remember one of the river side houses having a soda machine that vended beer, and us standing there thinking nothing was better. Not sure if it’s still there or not. I remember more than 4 houses back then.

  12. ok is it the one whose roof is just barely visible off N Halls Ferry? I used to wonder which blue-haired lady was tooling around NoCo in a Rolls with a driver until I found that place.

  13. I just tried the link, at it works via Firefox.

    Yes, the same Desloge as in THE Desloge family. The estate – including the separate ballroom building accessed by underground tunnel – is now owned by Boeing. They use it for seminars, and rent it out for functions. The main entrance to it is now off New Halls Ferry, and you have to pass a guard kiosk.

    But there is a “no no” back entrance down a private street off Shackelford. But you WILL be stopped by a hawk-eyed resident because there are plenty of signs letting you know you’re not supposed to be there. We checked it out the day these photos were taken.

  14. sorry, just googled it – the underground ballroom one.

  15. Toby: the Desloge link isn’t working, is that the one that in the 80’s the family (not DesL at that point to my knowledge) who installed a funicular down the bluff to a permanently moored old steamboat (wood frame on concrete hull) as a party house? or the one that years ago had a ballroom built into a cave below the house that was glassed in ala John Lautner? or are they one in the same?

  16. I grew up in Alton and of course explored not only Alton, but Godfrey and various river towns all the way up through Calhoun county. Your description of how unsettling those land/water boundaries can be is spot on. Once I was old enough to drive, I spent a lot of time over in NoCo driving around looking for the same sort of areas.

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