The investment objective of Chouteau Marine Investors, LLC is to maximize total return by making investments in covered hopper barges employed in the transportation of dry bulk cargo on the inland waterways of the United States.

The Company took delivery on July 3, 2012 of seven new covered hopper barges built by Trinity Marine Products in Caruthersville, Missouri.  The barges have been placed with Heartland Barge Management of Columbia, Illinois to be managed in a pool of similar barges from other owners under a Barge Management Agreement.  A summary of the terms of the Barge Management Agreement is provided in the "Members Only" section of this website.

The Company's seven barges will be named AJS 101 through AJS 107, derived from the fact that the two Chouteau brothers, Auguste and Jean-Pierre, played an important role in the founding of St. Louis as a port on the Mississippi River.  Their story is told in the book, The First Chouteaus: River Barons of Early St. Louis, which is available on Amazon.com.