This Nov. 28, 2012 photo provided by The United States Coast Guard shows a WWII minesweeper on the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Mo. The lack of rain has left many rivers at low levels unseen for decades offering a glimpse at things not normally seen. The minesweeper, once moored along the Mississippi River as a museum at St. Louis before it was torn away by floodwaters two decades ago, has become visible _ rusted but intact. (AP Photo/United States Coast Guard, Colby Buchanan)
Low-water rivers offering up glimpse of history
This Nov. 28, 2012 photo provided by The United States Coast Guard shows a WWII minesweeper on the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Mo. The lack of rain has left many rivers at low levels unseen for decades offering a glimpse at things not normally seen. The minesweeper, once moored along the Mississippi River as a museum at St. Louis before it was torn away by floodwaters two decades ago, has become visible _ rusted but intact. (AP Photo/United States Coast Guard, Colby Buchanan)
By JIM SALTER
Associated Press /
December 23, 2012
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Such was the case with the USS Inaugural, a World War II minesweeper that for years served as a docked museum on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The Great Flood of 1993 ripped the Inaugural from its mooring near the Gateway Arch. It crashed into the Poplar Street bridge, and then sank.
In September, the rusted Inaugural became visible again, though now nothing more than an empty, orange-rusted hulk lying on its side not far from a south St. Louis casino.
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