Keep the party hats on

ST. LOUIS -- Organizers of St. Louis' New Year's Eve blowout had hopes for a big bash, guessing that 25,000 revelers would take part in the gala featuring a Ferris wheel soaring up more than 11 stories.

Oh, how they underestimated.

The turnout turned out to be at least twice -- by some accounts, quadruple -- what had been envisioned, packing Forest Park, clogging parking lots and overwhelming shuttles in what already had been billed as the biggest New Year's blowout this river town had ever seen.

Now as the debris gets cleared and the Ferris wheel gets dismantled for the time being, there comes this echo: St. Louis, keep your party hats on.

In coming months, the Gateway City will commemorate its hosting of the 1904 World's Fair and the bicentennial of the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, makers of the historic river trek westward to Oregon's Pacific coast.

There'll be local nods to what has been called history's greatest real-estate bargain: President Jefferson's 1803 deal for more than 800,000 square miles of French-claimed land, which more than doubled the size of the fledgling United States. The price tag: a mere $15 million.

Jefferson already had hired Lewis and Clark to find out what was out there, and their 8,000-mile, round-trip journey launched near St. Louis took more than two years.

In March 1804, this city hosted the ceremony marking the formal transfer of Upper Louisiana -- now all or part of more than a dozen states, including Missouri and Kansas -- to the United States.

The Olympic torch bound for this summer's games in Greece will pass in June through St. Louis, which a century ago became the first U.S. city to host the modern-era Olympic Games. Only three other American cities are tapped to take part in the latest torch relay.

St. Louis will host the men's Midwest Regional in the NCAA college basketball tournament and stage its River Splash, the latter a six-weekend summer carnival complete with fireworks, concerts and a multimedia water show. This year and next, the city will host the NCAA wrestling championships.

For sure, Mayor Francis Slay says, there's no shortage of reasons to party.

"It's not just celebrating New Year's Eve; it's celebrating the city's rich history and its transformation," Slay said Wednesday night, moments after helping flip a switch to formally light the towering Ferris wheel for the city's '04 Eve.

Many who converged on New Year's Eve to Forest Park -- scene of the World's Fair a century ago -- talked of wanting to feel history, typically by taking a spin on the 115-foot-tall Ferris wheel that was near, appropriately enough, the World's Fair Pavilion.

That "Giant Wheel," to return in late May to the 1,370-acre park for a three-month run, was less than half the height of the 265-foot-tall "World's Greatest Ride" that graced the park 100 years ago. That Ferris wheel was dynamited and hauled off for scrap metal after its Forest Park run.

Though fearful of heights, 60-year-old Hazel Hauck smiled after climbing off the Ferris wheel on Wednesday night. She had to give it a try, as hundreds did that night.

"I don't go on regular Ferris wheels," said Hauck, from the St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood. "But this is history. It's great."

St. Louis expects to close out 2004 with its "Grand Finale" New Year's Eve fireworks extravaganza, then usher in 2005 and some things already on its docket, including hosting a carnival that is the NCAA men's Final Four -- the city's first since 1978.

"We're not going to have a world's fair, but we are going to have the biggest, best celebration St. Louis has had since 1904," Jack Danforth, a former U.S. senator for Missouri, has said.

If Wednesday night is any indication, John Garrett likes the revelry that lies ahead.

"It's great," Garrett, a 47-year-old worker for the city's parks department, said after stepping from the Ferris wheel he rode with his daughter and stepdaughter, both 15. "It's nice for every one to get out here together and enjoy."

------

On the Net

St. Louis 2004: www.stlouis2004.org

2004 celebration: www.celebrate2004.org

Public Broadcasting Service's Lewis and Clark site: www.pbs.org/lewisandclark