Barge on the Meramec near Fenton

Always heard that there were some barge wrecks on the Meramec. It turns out that the Meramec was used for trade back before we had all the roads we have now. Went to Emmenager Conservation Area which is on the east side of the river just north of I44. The river was real low so I thought it was a prime time to see if I could find any barges. Found what I believe was 2 on on the east side on the other on the west side. One was just north of the I44 bridge on the west side. It was steel and then had a concrete for a deck. My thought was that is wasn't actually a barge for traffic but some sort of floating platform. I believe that Emmenager Conservation Area was a resort or amusement park at one time. About 200 yards up river on the east side there is what appears to be a wooden barge, there isn't enough of it left to really come to a conclusion as to what it was. I think it was way to big to be a dock but that is also possible.

All these photos were taken on June 10, 2012