Great Revelations on the Great River Road
I've taken a few days away from the Adventure to visit friends and loved ones. We pick up again at Galena, Illinois. Galena is Latin for lead sulfide, and the combination of the lead mines and easy access to the Mississippi down the Galena River had made this a major town in early America. Ulysses S. Grant had moved to Galena to work for a branch of his father's leather tanning business, when the Civil War began and he rode off to become a towering historical figure. When he returned victorious to Galena, the adoring and well-off town gave him a house, complete with furnishings. In the subsequent years, the lead was mined out, the river silted in, the business departed, and time passed the town by. As a result, its beautiful red brick buildings were not sacrificed to progress, and it is a charming little tourist town now. The surrounding area consists of beautiful rolling hills -- the glaciers didn't affect this area. I arrived just in time for the last tour of the Grant home, which Grant's children gave back to the town with the original furniture -- few historic houses are so well endowed. Then I went to the Main Street to look for a post card. Nearly every store was closed at 5 pm, although there was still plenty of daylight for tourists to wander around. Greed is not great in Galena.
A little north of there, I crossed the Mississippi into Iowa at Dubuque and headed up the Great River Road of the western shore. The terrain continued hilly, the road winding first west, then north through fields of corn. At the crest of a hill, the Mississippi appeared below as blue pools in a valley of green. After a steep descent, I came to Guttenburg and turned into the business district, which fronted the river. Dinner was at the Cafe Mississippi. Halfway through the meal, a barge came through the lock. Yes, the lock. I've just learned that there are a number of locks and dams on the Mississippi above St. Louis. Along with dredging of a channel, the concrete and steel have tamed the rapids and shallows that had made the Upper Mississippi a hazardous cruise. The barge was actually 15 barges linked together, 3 x 5. Locals told me they might contain soybeans or coal or limestone blocks, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth.
Golf fanatics will have heard of the golf course at Guttenburg. Aviation buffs will know that Charles Lindberg and other early pilots used the Lakeshore dance hall at Guttenberg for dead reckoning on flights west from Chicago. Printing historians will know the town possesses a Gutenburg Bible facsimile that was damaged in the WWII firebombing and that Mainz was willing to sell to raise money to restore its museum.
After a pleasant night at the roadside motel there, I continued up the Great River Road. As well as never hearing about locks and dams on the Mississippi, I don't recall ever hearing how incredibly beautiful the Upper Mississippi Valley is. It is lined on both sides by green-cloaked bluffs. There often are islands in the middle of the river and, through the National Wildlife Refuge portion, large green plates of aquatic plants. The Great River Road winds between the bluffs and the river, providing frequent lovely vistas of wide water and green hills. The time to visit for bird lovers is winter, when there reportedly are hundreds of bald-headed eagles, flocks of tundra swans, and hundreds of thousands of ducks.
In McGregor, Iowa, I found a coffee shop with decor and menu to match anything in a large city. It shared a building with a massage/reflexology/self-empowerment business that appeared to be a slice of Santa Fe or Sedona incongruously dropped into the Midwest. Just north of there I crossed the arched bridges into Prairie du Chien, WI, just to see what was there. The name means Dog Plain. The French explorers Marquette and Jolliet entered the Mississippi here. The area was a nice flat plain in the midst of all the hills and bluffs, and the Indian chief at that location was Alim -- meaning Dog. Turned aside by construction, I didn't see much, and then went back across the bridges (gorgeous views -- wish they'd had a turnout for pictures) and a couple miles north to the Effigy Mounds National Park. I'd bought a National Parks annual pass at the Badlands, but hadn't expected to use it again until Montana. But here was another little gem in the park system I'd never heard of. I knew that there had been Indian cultures that built burial mounds, but I didn't know that some of them built mounds in the shapes of bears and birds. The map made it look like a hike up the trails to the mounds, built on top a particularly high bluff, would be well-rewarded with river views, but the day was hot and I didn't want to spend a lot of time there. So I viewed the simple circular mounds and the replica Indian village near the visitor center and drove on.
I'm discovering there is no city name that has been used just once in this country. Did you know there is a Harper's Ferry, Iowa, right there on the Mississippi? Or Durango, Iowa, or Cleveland, Minnesota?
In Winona, MN, I took a tour of the Watkins Products museum and store. I first encountered Watkins at an antique store in Lamberton. I can't believe I hadn't heard of them before -- their wares seem like the sort one would encounter often in gourmet shops and health stores. Watkins is an international company that began in the later half of the 19th century. Their 350 products include toiletries, spices and extracts, medicinal tonics and syrups, and cocoa and soup powders. The bottles and labels are charmingly evocative of the company's Victorian roots. Their best known product is real vanilla extract, undiluted by imitation flavors (although you can get that variety, too).
The day ended in Redwing MN, bringing me full circle and finally ready to turn westward again. A local who observed me taking pictures of the beautiful Redwing train depot pointed out the peregrine falcons that have been nesting atop one of the grain elevators for 10 years. If you make it to Redwing, perhaps for eagle watching, don't miss the double lemon pie at the Liberty's Restaurant and Lounge.
Winging on from Redwing. Ann
A little north of there, I crossed the Mississippi into Iowa at Dubuque and headed up the Great River Road of the western shore. The terrain continued hilly, the road winding first west, then north through fields of corn. At the crest of a hill, the Mississippi appeared below as blue pools in a valley of green. After a steep descent, I came to Guttenburg and turned into the business district, which fronted the river. Dinner was at the Cafe Mississippi. Halfway through the meal, a barge came through the lock. Yes, the lock. I've just learned that there are a number of locks and dams on the Mississippi above St. Louis. Along with dredging of a channel, the concrete and steel have tamed the rapids and shallows that had made the Upper Mississippi a hazardous cruise. The barge was actually 15 barges linked together, 3 x 5. Locals told me they might contain soybeans or coal or limestone blocks, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth.
Golf fanatics will have heard of the golf course at Guttenburg. Aviation buffs will know that Charles Lindberg and other early pilots used the Lakeshore dance hall at Guttenberg for dead reckoning on flights west from Chicago. Printing historians will know the town possesses a Gutenburg Bible facsimile that was damaged in the WWII firebombing and that Mainz was willing to sell to raise money to restore its museum.
After a pleasant night at the roadside motel there, I continued up the Great River Road. As well as never hearing about locks and dams on the Mississippi, I don't recall ever hearing how incredibly beautiful the Upper Mississippi Valley is. It is lined on both sides by green-cloaked bluffs. There often are islands in the middle of the river and, through the National Wildlife Refuge portion, large green plates of aquatic plants. The Great River Road winds between the bluffs and the river, providing frequent lovely vistas of wide water and green hills. The time to visit for bird lovers is winter, when there reportedly are hundreds of bald-headed eagles, flocks of tundra swans, and hundreds of thousands of ducks.
In McGregor, Iowa, I found a coffee shop with decor and menu to match anything in a large city. It shared a building with a massage/reflexology/self-empowerment business that appeared to be a slice of Santa Fe or Sedona incongruously dropped into the Midwest. Just north of there I crossed the arched bridges into Prairie du Chien, WI, just to see what was there. The name means Dog Plain. The French explorers Marquette and Jolliet entered the Mississippi here. The area was a nice flat plain in the midst of all the hills and bluffs, and the Indian chief at that location was Alim -- meaning Dog. Turned aside by construction, I didn't see much, and then went back across the bridges (gorgeous views -- wish they'd had a turnout for pictures) and a couple miles north to the Effigy Mounds National Park. I'd bought a National Parks annual pass at the Badlands, but hadn't expected to use it again until Montana. But here was another little gem in the park system I'd never heard of. I knew that there had been Indian cultures that built burial mounds, but I didn't know that some of them built mounds in the shapes of bears and birds. The map made it look like a hike up the trails to the mounds, built on top a particularly high bluff, would be well-rewarded with river views, but the day was hot and I didn't want to spend a lot of time there. So I viewed the simple circular mounds and the replica Indian village near the visitor center and drove on.
I'm discovering there is no city name that has been used just once in this country. Did you know there is a Harper's Ferry, Iowa, right there on the Mississippi? Or Durango, Iowa, or Cleveland, Minnesota?
In Winona, MN, I took a tour of the Watkins Products museum and store. I first encountered Watkins at an antique store in Lamberton. I can't believe I hadn't heard of them before -- their wares seem like the sort one would encounter often in gourmet shops and health stores. Watkins is an international company that began in the later half of the 19th century. Their 350 products include toiletries, spices and extracts, medicinal tonics and syrups, and cocoa and soup powders. The bottles and labels are charmingly evocative of the company's Victorian roots. Their best known product is real vanilla extract, undiluted by imitation flavors (although you can get that variety, too).
The day ended in Redwing MN, bringing me full circle and finally ready to turn westward again. A local who observed me taking pictures of the beautiful Redwing train depot pointed out the peregrine falcons that have been nesting atop one of the grain elevators for 10 years. If you make it to Redwing, perhaps for eagle watching, don't miss the double lemon pie at the Liberty's Restaurant and Lounge.
Winging on from Redwing. Ann
posted by Annventurer | 8:36 AM
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