To the editor:

This letter is in regards to the seven acre site, south of Interstate 255 and east of Koch Rd. We’ve fought putting a casino, a truck stop and now a gas station. A gas station which won’t have electric charging stations.

To the north of the site you have Veterans Affair Hospital, Beasley Elementary, the Early Childhood Center and the Jefferson Barracks Cemetery.

To the south and southwest there is Bussen Quarry and the old Koch Hospital site. In the fields, there are over 18,000 mass graves.

Koch Hospital used to be a city. Had its own post office, blacksmith, etc. Anyone going up the Missisippi River had to stop there and be tested for cholera, yellow fever and smallpox. If you tested positive, you were left there to die.

These people left their homes, livelihood to expand our country.

Having attended Beasley, we could find musket balls from Civil War skirmishes.

I believe this seven acres to be hallowed ground. There should be a National Park there commemorating this past. It would be a beautiful memorial overlooking the river.

Brenda Harris

Oakville