Mile 178.8 - RBD USS Inaugural

John Ruskey

20 Apr 2026 � 1 min read

178.8 RBD USS Inaugural

200 yards south of the MacArthur Bridge on the right bank descending lies the forlorn wreckage of the minesweeper ship Inaugural. You can see it on google earth, near an inlet created by a small concrete factory. This once-proud World War 2 ship was launched in 1944 and served the remainder of the war. It was mothballed in 1946 after the war's end, and eventually turned over to St. Louis as a floating museum in 1968. It was on display below the Arch until 1993. But then it broke loose during the Great Flood, capsized, and eventually wound up aground on the river bank. After almost two decades in the water, every inch of the ship is covered in rust. With salvage proving unworkable, plans to scrap the ship have never been carried out. The Inaugural lies alongside one of the innumerable industrial sites that lines the river. A concrete flood wall protects the city from this point southward. Though most of St. Louis sits on higher bluffs, the riverfront industries would have been inundated in 1993 without the flood wall. For several years, the flood wall was the canvas for an invited graffiti event. A crowd of graffiti artists convened on the city and tagged the wall, turning the purely functional construct into a vibrant piece of art. Spectacular tags and murals remain in place today, some of which you can enjoy as you paddle by. (Built St. Louis)

More from this section

Preamble:

Preamble: I first explored this stretch of river on a 5-month raft trip that began after my high school graduation in 1982. My best friend and I decided that we had enough of traditional schooling, and much to the dismay of our guidance counselors we scuttled all college plans and

Table of Contents Appendix I - The Lower Missouri River Water Trail Appendix II - Upper Mississippi River Water Trails Appendix III - Mike Clark: Chain of Rocks Appendix IV - Mike Clark: Alton to Arch Appendix V - Over the Chain of Rocks with the Lewis & Clark Appendix

Mile 57.0 - Interstate 57 Bridge

7.5 Interstate 57 Bridge Vertical Clearance: 107.3 feet minus Cairo Gage. As with all bridges, avoid getting too close to pylons supporting the bridge structure. Water pushes strongly against pylons on top end, and turbulent waters swirl below. 5 - 1.8 LBD Angelo Towhead Angelo Towhead is

Mile 10.2 - 10.2 - 7.7 LBD Boston Bar

10.2 - 7.7 LBD Boston Bar Boston Bar hugs the left bank descending and creates a moody scene, partly due to the massive piles of driftwood that get mashed deep into its woods. Good low and medium campsites are found at the top end of Boston Bar on

Mile 10.2 - 10.2 - 7.7 LBD Boston Chute

10.2 - 7.7 LBD Boston Chute You can enjoy a three mile passage through the bottomland forests lining Boston Chute, but be wary of a cross channel dike at bottom end which causes 3 foot whitewater waves in medium water levels.

Mile 13.0 - LBD Cache River Diversion Canal

13 LBD Cache River Diversion Canal The Cache River used to enter the Ohio River in between Mounds City and Urbandale, both upstream of Cairo, but now it enters the Mississippi 13 miles above Cairo, and about 20 miles from its old mouth. Go figure. Such is the nature of