The trees give way to farming lands as we cross the most fertile soil in America, The Great Plains. We drive through wide open spaces, corn fields and crops and small towns still showing us trees of splendor. We pick a trail that is going to give us a taste of the states of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and beyond. We have passed through Detroit and Chicago, some will wonder why we have not stopped for longer to explore these famous towns. We have had so much big town time, and can it get any bigger than NY, DC and Boston, that we need to get back to the small towns and open spaces.
We plan a short trip along the famous and mighty Mississippi River from Davenport, one of the ‘Quad Cities’ to the oldest town in the state of Iowa, Dubuque. We manage to find a spot on the river to have our lunch and it turns out to be a State run camping ground. It is hard to drag ourselves away from such a gorgeous bend in the river but it is too early to stop, sadly.
Dubuque is on the banks of the Mississippi and was once considered the gateway to the West, the ‘Key City”, by the immigrants who settled here. After its founding by Julien Dubuque in 1785 and his work with the local Indian Tribe a thriving trade market began attracting the new settlers. We are keen to learn of the mighty waterway that bisects this town and the entire country from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. We spend a day learning of the history of the early explorers, the paddle steamers, the timber industry, Mark Twain, the floods and the power of the river, the civil war, the Bayous, the locks, the wildlife and the general importance of this life line to all the river touches. One over-ruling theme is that this river gets into the blood of those around it and becomes a major part of their lives.
Whilst here we have sat on and walked along these shores we can understand the magnetism that draws you in and bewitches you. Dubuque is just one of many spots along the river that you can learn and experience life close to this mighty waterway. We would like to come back one day and maybe take a canoe trip to paddle it’s length, what a journey that would be, one put on the bucket list.
We spend the night in Dubuque and wake up to a crisp sunny morning and head off to Eagle Point Park, slightly North of Dubuque. This is a park right up high overlooking Lock and Dam #11. Along the upper reaches of the Mississippi the river drops 420ft in just 669 miles so to tame the river and make it work for all those people that relied, and still do rely upon it, a series of 29 locks and dams were built. This particular system was built in 1937 at a cost of $7,500,000 and is today near to finishing a $60,000,000 revamp. It is the last one to be restored to its full capacity.
Whilst we take in the view over three states (Iowa, where we stand, Wisconsin to the North and Illinois across the water) we watch the lock in action. A series of 5 barges, approximately 120m in length total is pushed against the lock gates and the tug is pulled up against its side whilst the gates are closed behind it. The lower gates are slowly opened after the water has dropped and the tug pushes the barge through into open water, the whole process taking about an hour. It is common that three sets of these barge “trains'” be pushed together by the powerful tug boats up and down the river carrying in the region of 1500 tones in each barge. This load would take a train 3 miles long or a line of trucks stretching 35 miles to transport. No wonder the river is so important. What a genius engineering feet this was in the early 1900’s, and still a most effective system nearly a hundred years on and for into our future.
Although the river agrees to work with the people for much of the time it still occasionally stamps its authority by flooding, just to show who really is the boss. Nature can never truly be tamed can it? From Eagle Point Park we set off on another driving day, our next destination Des Moines, Iowa.
Here We Come World 