Secret St. Louis: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

by David Baugher

Where in St. Louis can you… …picnic at a radioactive waste dump? …learn what West County Center’s famous dove really represents? …visit the grave of the man who burned Atlanta? …join a nudist resort? …view a cube comprised of a million dollar bills? …see a piece from New York’s Twin Towers? …find out exactly what a Billiken is? Whether you are piloting a simulated barge on the Mississippi River, exploring the hidden history of Abraham Lincoln’s bizarre swordfight in St. Charles County or eating a ten-pound apple-pie in Kimmswick inspired by the Great Flood of 1993, it is hard to get bored with a copy of “Secret St. A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure.” By turns wistful and whimsical, this is a book which answers the questions you never knew you had about St. Louis while taking readers on a whirlwind tour through 97 unique but often little-known spaces and places that can’t be found anywhere else. A tourist handbook for people who thought they never needed one, “Secret St. Louis” provides a scavenger hunt of hidden gems traversing the somber, strange, surprising and silly locales which define the culture and history that make St. Louis such a diverse and amazing place to call home. From Weldon Spring to Wildwood, from Overland to O’Fallon, from Bellefontaine to Bridgeton, this is an exploration of St. Louis’s odds and ends like no other. David Baugher is a freelance writer and researcher whose work has appeared in a variety of St. Louis publications from the Webster-Kirkwood Times to the St. Louis Beacon. His first book, “Once Upon a Time in St. Louis” co-authored with local artist Marilynne Bradley was published in 2014. A longtime journalist and enthusiast for odd information, he is also the former author of weirdfactblog.com.

Genres: Nonfiction

209 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 26, 2016

Reviews

[Kiwi Carlisle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short, well-executed, quirky guide to some of the oddest attractions in St. Louis, from a giant ice cream cone, a huge soda bottle and a mammoth bottle of ketchup, to a mastodon model, some very odd statues, and the site of the only officially-recognized miracle in the Midwest. It's nicely up-to-date, and is a great resource for local folks and tourists in search of the "weird, wonderful and obscure."

[Carlos Delgado · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a local and even I didn't know about everything that was going into the book. I do now have a few ideas for what to do or see during my next "staycation" away from work.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book delivers on what its title promises: 97 odd and interesting places to visit in the St Louis area, with capsule histories of each. If I thought for awhile, I could probably come up with a few others to round out the number to an even 100. Like the site of the first White Castle or the sort of recently dedicated Chuck Berry statue (although that one isn't so secret). But the book is good and fun.

[Michael Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Always fun to check out these 'guides' to strange and odd locations/sites/tourist places. This one for my home town is a bit tame. Some very new pieces that I did not know about but many old classic places not mentioned. If someplace that is part of the official record can get it's two page listing while being an almost non-entity why leave out major attractions that are on almost every to see list.