The Story Behind This Place In Missouri Is Almost Unbelievable
By Stephanie Butler|Published November 23, 2015
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Stephanie Butler
Author
A native Midwesterner with a love for family, friends, and learning new things. In second-stage of career life, this former college instructor enjoys contributing to OIYS, blogging, reading, and spending time with her kids.
At the site of a former cement factory located along Riverview Drive near the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis, a visionary named Bob Cassilly saw something that made him want to create an amazing adult amusement park, where you could “do all the things you aren’t supposed to do.” He worked on the project, Cementland, for 11 years and had great plans for what the 54-acre site would become. It’s a beautiful location, with a view of the Gateway Arch and with river access. But it was not to be…
Cassilly's plans for the cement site was extremely ambitious. He intended to build a castle, climbable pyramids, water slides, and a field of animal sculptures mixed with old factory machines. He also planned to install a spiral staircase around the giant smokestack so people could climb to the top and throw rocks off the side, as well as navigable waterways and a lake for canoeing.
For many this would seem an impossible dream, but sculptor Bob Cassilly had already proven his ability to create the unimaginable when in 1983 he bought an old shoe factory in downtown St. Louis and proceeded to install complex caves, a 10-story slide, a rooftop Ferris wheel, a ball pit and a massive jungle gym made from old airplanes and a fire truck. The building was transformed into a wonderland, named the City Museum and opened to the public in 1997. Now it attracts over 700,000 visitors each year.
So if anyone could pull off this new endeaver, it was Cassilly. Often seen driving a bulldozer on the site himself, he worked on Cementland tirelessly and succeeded in building the castle and gazebos, created bridges to connect the old buildings, and dug a lake.
Sadly, on September 26, 2011, Cassilly was killed at the Cementland site after the bulldozer he was driving slid off a rocky hill and flipped a few times before landing upright. Since that time, nature has been reclaiming the site, and it draws many intrigued visitors to come and see what all the hype was about, often leaving their mark in the form of graffiti. It’s actually quite dangerous to wander there. It was under construction and much of the unfinished attraction is unstable. A no trespass sign is an attempt to discourage visitors for this reason, but many still come.
So what will become of Cassilly’s vision? Sadly, although he had a plan, it was unclear to pretty much everyone else where he was going with it all. Many hope that someone will take the project on and complete what he started, while others think the site is an eyesore and would prefer to have it all torn down.
No matter what the future holds, it’s a shame that the world will never see what might have been had Bob Cassilly lived and finished his grand amusement park. He was a true visionary, artist, and a great contributor to the idea of thinking outside the box in order to create something truly beautiful out of the most basic, ordinary things. May he rest in peace.
Let’s take a look around, shall we?
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