Lake St. Clair, MO

Lake St. Clair is a Franklin County CDP wrapped around a lake impounded on a tributary of Hoosier Creek, which flows toward the Meramec River. The community sits just south of the city of St. Clair and about an hour's drive southwest of St. Louis, with the water shaping both the name and the road pattern. Students attend St. Clair R-XIII School District, while the surrounding hills and lake bring a different setting from the nearby city grid. Lake St. Clair is an unincorporated place whose identity is unusually literal: a named lake, a creek system, and a school district define the local map.