First U.S. modern Olympics
St. Louis hosted the first Olympic Games held on American soil. The 1904 Games ran alongside the World's Fair, stretched across months rather than weeks, and were so disorganized that the marathon is still told as a comedy of errors. The fair itself is credited — perhaps apocryphally — with popularizing the ice cream cone, the hot dog bun, and iced tea. The city rises where the Mississippi and Missouri meet, built on fur trading, railroads, and the westward expansion the Gateway Arch was later raised to mark. Scott Joplin composed ragtime here, and the blues clubs kept the thread going. Toasted ravioli, gooey butter cake, and a stubborn loyalty to provel cheese make up a food culture that is proudly, defiantly regional.
