St. Louis was a rapidly growing frontier town in 1849. That year, the city experienced a great fire that destroyed the city’s business district, an epidemic of cholera that decimated the population, and a steady influx of would-be miners on their way to the California hills. Also, there was a sensational murder and an equally sensational trial.
Christopher Allen Gorden, author of Fire, Pestilence, and Death: St. Louis 1849, is this episode’s special guest. Listen and learn more about St. Louis in the pivotal year of 1849. Of course, since the show is called Fact or Fiction, Christopher will include one fictional detail in the story. Will I guess the fiction? Will you?
Listen carefully because it’s tricky to know if something is fact or fiction. Ready to play?
![Man in a military-style coat and hat carrying paraphernalia that would be useless for a miner.](http://factorfictionpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Independent_Gold_Hunter_on_His_Way_to_California-197x300.jpeg)
![The ruins of the Great St. Louis Fire, 17-18 May 1849. A man stands within the wreckage and a church steeple towers over it.](http://factorfictionpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/fire-300x238.jpeg)
![WATERCOLOR PAINTING OF JOHN FINN DIGGING GRAVES ON ARSENAL ISLAND FOR CHOLERA EPIDEMIC BY GEORGE CONREY](http://factorfictionpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cholera-graves-300x183.jpeg)
![A sepia image of a multistory hotel with a fire escape prominently shown on the side.](http://factorfictionpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/national-hotel-1949-300x211.jpeg)
![Book cover with the title written over a sepia image of an old building.](http://factorfictionpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-19-at-2.38.50-PM-210x300.png)