Feds buy Cora Island for $5 million

ST. LOUIS -- The federal government has bought a Mississippi River island in St. Charles County and plans to turn the former farm into public park space.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that federal land managers and conservation groups plan to announce the acquisition of Cora Island on Tuesday. The 1,470-acre island sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

Plans call for restoring a lost wetland to help with flood control and for allowing public access to the island, which had been in private hands.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Kansas City District bought Cora Island for about $5 million earlier this year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will manage the property under an agreement worked out by the Trust for Public Land and the St. Louis-based Confluence Partnership.