ST. LOUIS—The place: 12:45 p.m., Friday, in an old courthouse overlooking the Gateway Arch. The courthouse was once used to hear the Dred Scott case but has now been turned into a St. Louis history museum. Red, white, and blue banners are draped across the banisters, accentuating the giant American flag that hangs below the 90-foot-high cupola.

We're in a room that couldn't have been filled with any more fluorescent light. At the front of it sits a podium with the Department of Interior seal balanced at its center. At the rear are a few tables arranged in a rectangle, where there was just a meeting between the national dignitaries and local business leaders.

The people: Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Salazar, as always, is bedecked in his bolo tie. The room is half-filled, journalists, Park Service rangers, and a few business leaders. No members of the public appear to be present. Outside the door, tourists mill around the courthouse soaking in St. Louis' history.