ST. LOUIS • In the years before the 1904 World’s Fair, the local water supply flowed with a distinct hue befitting its muddy source. Samuel Clemens, in his classic river memoir, “Life on the Mississippi,” lampooned St. Louis water thusly:
“If you will let your glass stand half an hour, you can separate the land from the water as easy as Genesis. … The land is very nourishing, the water is thoroughly wholesome.” The locals, he wrote, “Take the draught as they would gruel.”
Far from laughing, promoters of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition were mortified by visions of visitors from around the world gazing upon fountains and cascades billowing and bubbling in brown. While chemists at the St. Louis Water Works tried to fix the decades-old problem, the fair built its own filtration plant, just in case.
In 1894, St. Louis opened a new water works with six massive settling tanks at the Mississippi River’s Chain of Rocks, far upstream from city neighborhoods. But the water still flowed murkily from the faucets. Mayor Rolla Wells had promised clear water for the fair. Time was running out.
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Taking a cue from Quincy, Ill., engineers at the water works began using lime and iron sulfate to separate silt from the water. High water and ice in January 1904 delayed their experiments. But even by letting the treated water sit for 15 hours, the brown wouldn’t go away.
Then water works chemist John F. Wixford had a simple idea — dump 10 times as much lime into the formula. On March 23, 1904, the dumping began. Early results were good, and Wixford wrote in notes, “The great bulk of the mud went to the bottom of the basins.”
On March 30, the Post-Dispatch, citing evidence from hydrants downtown, carried a poem on its front page that referred to city water commissioner Ben Adkins:
“Our Mr. Adkins, so we hear
Has made the city water clear.”
The newspaper predicted that fairgoers will say, “Oh, what clear water they have.” When the cascades on Art Hill were tested April 19, the sprays of water ‘sparkled like jewels in the air.”
An estimated 197,000 people attended the fair’s opening day, April 30. Through a seven-month run, the fair never had to use its reserve filtering plant.
Success engendered hard feelings. Wixford sought to patent the process, but Mayor Wells declared that no one person deserved credit. Wixford quit. The North St. Louis Business Men’s Association, taking Wixford’s side, raised $5,000 for him. Wixford returned to the water department in 1927 and died eight years later.
With numerous modifications and updates with disinfectants, the city still uses Wixford’s methods.
Read more stories from Tim O’Neil’s Look Back series.
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