We will examine 19th-century St. Louis, Missouri, as a fusion of cultures, geography, and economies. Missouri, and especially St. Louis played a role as a contested space between regions. By many measures, Missouri does not fit into the patterns evident in other "Southern" states, and St. Louis fits even less so. Now known as the Gateway to the West, St. Louis was economically tied to the Southern cotton economy and was a slave trading center. However, from the 1840s onward, St. Louis contained a large population of strongly pro-Union and anti-slavery German immigrants. This blending of cultures meant there were German turnvereins and beer gardens near slave pens and a continuing French Creole aristocracy trying to maintain power. Viewed as the northernmost Southern city, as well as the most southern Northern city, St. Louis was neither and both, a fusion of regions and cultures. The St. Louis riverfront was a testament to this fusion, as free and enslaved African American steamboat workers rubbed shoulders with German stevedores, Irish immigrants, and Americans of all types relocating westward. The blending and conflicts of cultures in 19th-century St. Louis provide us with a dynamic opportunity to explore the diversity of the United States.