Bloody Island
The vanished Mississippi island where St. Louis settled its grudges with pistols.
An infamous location for duels, cockfights, and illegal boxing matches.
The Story
Across the Mississippi from nineteenth-century St. Louis, a wooded sandbar became notorious as Bloody Island—a secluded dueling ground where political feuds and personal insults ended in gunfire. Thomas Hart Benton shot Charles Lucas in their first duel in August 1817 and killed him in a rematch that September. Joshua Barton died in a duel with Thomas C. Rector in 1823. In 1831, Major Thomas Biddle and Congressman Spencer Pettis mortally wounded each other at close range. Cottonwoods and willows once screened the island, but the Mississippi itself was changing: the island's growth threatened the St. Louis harbor. River-engineering works begun under Robert E. Lee in the late 1830s and completed in subsequent years redirected the current and encouraged sediment to join the island to the Illinois shore. The former island is now part of the East St. Louis industrial riverfront, much of it occupied by rail infrastructure. The dueling ground has disappeared, but its stories remain.
What Remains Today
Bloody Island is no longer an island. Its former footprint is part of the industrial and railroad landscape along the East St. Louis waterfront, near the eastern approaches to the Eads Bridge. There is no preserved public dueling ground to walk through, and the precise locations of individual duels are not marked as visitor destinations.
Visiting Information
Visiting the former Bloody Island site is not recommended. Much of the historic footprint is private industrial or railroad property, not a public park or tourist attraction. Do not enter rail yards, cross tracks, bypass gates, or use service roads without authorization.
With permission: A researcher or photographer wishing to visit should first identify the owner or operator of the specific parcel or rail facility, contact its property-management or public-affairs office, and obtain explicit permission and any required escorted access, safety briefing, and identification. Permission for one parcel does not grant access to neighboring railroad property. There is no general public route onto the former island.
For a safer alternative, view the East St. Louis riverfront and Eads Bridge from established public viewpoints on the St. Louis side of the Mississippi, and use historical maps to understand where the island once lay.
Location
Former Bloody Island, East St. Louis riverfront near Eads Bridge, East St. Louis, Illinois (historic site; no public access)
Photo Gallery
Watch the Story
Sources
Illinois State Museum, History of Bloody Island and its Duels: https://www.museum.state.il.us/RiverWeb/landings/Ambot/Archives/fwp/Bloody_20Island.html
Illinois Courts, Battling for the Mississippi River: https://www.illinoiscourts.gov/News/1024/Illinois-Supreme-Court-history-Battling-for-the-Mississippi-River/news-detail/
Missouri Secretary of State, Crack of the Pistol: https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/education/dueling/political-duels.asp
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District history: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-D103-PURL-gpo36115/pdf/GOVPUB-D103-PURL-gpo36115.pdf
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