In the 1950's, about 200 yards to the East and on Top of the bluffs, there was a huge boulder with a brass plaque. This plaque identified the site as the winter camp grounds of the Missouri Indians. During the French period, villages of De Peres (1703) and then with Pierre Laclede's party Creve Coeur. The legend, on the brass plaque was that Laclede himself fell in love with the young Indian girl, and the Chief refused to allow her to marry beneith her station and refused his permission. The girl then threw herself off the cliffs into the lake and drown. The lake at that time came up to the bluffs, not as today. And, Laclede, with broken heart, named the Lake "Lak de Creve Coeur" or Lake of the Broken Heart. The newly forming village took the same name...1762.
It is always amazing to me when people come into an area and change the history to suit themselves. The stone, and plaque are no longer there, the sign is now down at the springs, a long way from the original.
I grew up in this town, and am a decendent of the original settlers. This tale was told to my brothers and I, by my mother many times.