A quick note about photos—since we are touring virtually, most of these places are sites of which I do not have my own photos. (Ok, with Keokuk, I’m lazy and don’t want to bother going through my albums today. Maybe tomorrow). So I will be pulling links to photos on the web and screen shots from Google Maps. I do not own these photos and do not reserve any copyrights or title to them. I will try to cite the sources for you.)
Our walk starts on Sunday, January 1, 2012. We are beginning our travels in Keokuk, Iowa. Keokuk is Janet's hometown and she is somewhat sentimental about it. If you read the current press about Keokuk, lord knows why anyone would be sentimental about such a place. But she is anyway. Visit there and you will learn a lot about her interests in Victorian life. Keokuk is a definite river town, blue collar, industrial based and tied to river shipping and railway shipping. Janet has always thought it has a different small town vibe from the more interior agricultural small towns. Not a better or worse vibe, just different. She assumes it's because it's more of a factory town than a farm town and because of the culture of the river. Mike agreed, so she isn’t completely crazy.
At one time, Keokuk was a prominent Midwestern city along the Mississippi river and a shipping/transportation hub. It had well known industry, prominent citizens, and a lot of cultural opportunities. This of course was all prior to 1910. It still has one of the longest river locks on the Mississippi River. The present and future culture of Keokuk is rather grim. Like all factory based towns, job opportunities are shrinking and so it the population--currently around 10,000 people, down from the 15,000 in the 1970s when Janet lived there. But from a historian’s point of view, lots of remnants of those early days are still to be seen around town. Large Victorian houses, turn of the century commercial buildings, churches, rail depots, parks, a National Cemetery dating to the Civil War and a large hydro-electric dam. Many of these potential tourism draws are being allowed to crumble and die, but that’s another rant and not really the point of today’s blog post.
photo http://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pagesB/umissBR04.html )
Our walk is starting in Victory Park. This is a city park right along the Mississippi River, just below the hydro-electric dam and river lock system. There is a modern concrete bridge to Illinois along with an iron railway bridge. The old bridge has a swing span which opens to allow barge and boat traffic to pass through. Before 1980, this iron bridge had rail traffic on the bottom and car traffic on the top . . . along a VERY narrow roadway. Janet could tell you some stories about that trip . . . .
The park is quite scenic. Before we start walking, you should take a few minutes to explore the area. In the winter, the area is a great place to watch for bald eagles. The eagles enjoy fishing in the river below the power plant. In the summer, it is a great place to watch barges traveling on the river and going through the river locks, touring the hydroelectric dam, fishing off the boat ramps and camping. If your timing is right, you can even watch some of the excursion cruise boats such as the Delta Queen or Mississippi Queen go through the locks.
photo from: http://www.city-data.com/album/album-Keokuk-Iowa.html
The park also contains the statue of General Samuel Curtis, a native son who was a leading Union general during the Civil War and considered the hero of the Battle of Pea Ridge, in Pea Ridge, Arkansas.
photo from: http://www.city-data.com/album/album-Keokuk-Iowa.html
In the summer, the park is the site of Keokuk’s annual Blues Festival, Rollin’ on the River. http://www.keokukbluesfest.com/ In Janet’s younger days, it often hosted fairs and amusement rides during the summer. (Geez, is she getting old or what?) There is a decaying turn of the century railroad depot with wonderful architecture which deserves some love and historic preservation, if the city of Keokuk would ever get its head out of its ass and wake up and save it . . . not that this author has any definite opinions about it.
photo from: http://www.city-data.com/album/album-Keokuk-Iowa.html
This is also the historic founding point of Keokuk. In the late 1820s, the American Fur company established trading posts in the area. The collection of buildings and the supposedly unsavory traders that frequented them, gave the area the name “rat row”. Yeah, it was full of sleazy drunks and murderers even then. Why try to rise above it?
Photo from http://www.geomverity.org/
We are standing next to the George M. Verity Riverboat, dry-docked in the park. The boat is a small museum, open to tour in the summer months. According to the Keokuk Tourism Web site: “The George M. Verity River Museum is located in Victory Park on the riverfront. The paddle boat was built in Dubuque, Iowa by the U.S. Government in 1927 to revive river transportation and move barges from St Louis to St. Paul. It was then known as the S.S. Thorpe. Armco Steel Corporation bought the boat in 1940 and put it into service on the Ohio River, renaming it after the founder of their company, George M. Verity. The George M. Verity was donated to the City of Keokuk in 1961 after being retired from service.”
We start walking here. The first few blocks of our walk are actually kind of tough, all up hill. The riverfront park is, of course, at river level. The city of Keokuk is just behind you on the top of the bluff going up from the river. So before the land evens out, we have to walk up the bluff to the main part of the city.
Crossing the railroad tracks, and going up the hill.
photo from: http://www.city-data.com/album/album-Keokuk-Iowa.html
The view from the top of the bluff is pretty, so it’s worth the workout on your calves. The old railroad bridge now has a nice observation deck on top so we can pause there to recover.
(photo http://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pagesB/umissBR04.html )
photo from: http://www.city-data.com/album/album-Keokuk-Iowa.html
So dip your track shoes in the Mississippi River (we are sort of doing the RAGBRAI thing in reverse, after all), take a deep breath, and up the hill we go!
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