The Captains’ Return

The Captains’ Return is a bronze group of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Clark’s dog, Seaman, on the Mississippi riverfront just north of the Gateway Arch. It depicts the expedition’s return to St. Louis in 1806. If you’re already walking this part of the park, it’s an easy history stop; the full bronze group and the Arch together make the clearest sense of the place.

The sculpture sits along the 1.5-mile riverfront promenade. Step back far enough to fit the whole group and its base, then include the Arch behind it for a useful sense of scale. Riverfront parking is paid and card-only, entered from Chouteau Avenue south of the park, and can be unavailable during high water. An accessible path connects the Arch grounds with the riverfront, though some levee cobblestones are steep or uneven.

Sculptor Harry Weber made the 9,000-pound bronze, commissioned for the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s return. It was first installed by Eads Bridge in 2006. The two explorers and Seaman give that history a face you can stop beside on the riverfront.

Routine Mississippi River floods repeatedly submerged the original installation. The sculpture was removed for restoration in 2014, then returned in 2016 to a raised site just north of the Arch, about 17 feet higher than its former position. Its move is part of the story of this riverfront as much as the expedition it commemorates.