Tired of Pain Court yet?

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 4 Apr 2004, Alan Hartley wrote:
> The American Bottom) is on the east side of the the Mississippi (part of
> "the Illinois" of those days), across the river from the then-named
> Spanish Bottom (or Spanish side), which included St. Louis.

Thanks!  I think someone has pointed this distinction out to me before,
but I tend to lose track of it.  Since the American and Spanish Bottoms
are, as it were, cheek to cheek across the Mississippi, I suspect that
their flora are similar.

The American Bottom Archaeology project involved sites in Illinois (East
St. Louis and environs) that were being disturbed by highway construction.
Since a lot of the western shore archaeology was obliterated by the
expansion of St. Louis in the 1800s, the archaeology of the eastern shore
is helpful in clarifying matters.