Kimmswick — Levee High Apple Pie, an 1850s River Village & the Mastodons

Just thirty minutes south of downtown along the Mississippi bluffs, the tiny village of Kimmswick is one of the most perfectly preserved slices of 19th-century Missouri within an easy day's reach of St. Louis. Founded in 1859 by a German immigrant, the compact grid of restored log and clapboard buildings now houses antique shops, candy makers, and craft studios along brick-paved lanes — an unhurried place built for browsing. At its heart is the Blue Owl Restaurant, whose towering Levee High Apple Pie became a national sensation after an appearance on the Food Network. A few minutes north, the Mastodon State Historic Site protects the Kimmswick Bone Bed, where the bones of Ice Age mastodons were unearthed alongside human spear points — one of the most important prehistoric sites in North America. It's a gentle, self-contained day of pie, antiques, and deep time.