Starting at the end of June, at the end of each month the rest of the summer, I will be featuring an Iowa river town north of St. Louis along the Mississippi. These cities, such as Keokuk, have a more direct link to St. Louis, as Union Electric built a hydroelectric dam here just over a century ago.
But these river towns all have a link to St. Louis through the river, whether it’s across the mighty body of water in Nauvoo, Illinois or Fort Madison, through steamboats that once docked at the wharves of those towns before heading to the Gateway City.
We’ll also revisit Burlington, which I saw back in September of 2013. Further south, in Missouri and in Illinois, we looked at Hannibal and Quincy back in September of 2020.
But cities such as Muscatine, which were once linked to St. Louis by the river, began to be pulled away by Chicago. We’ll read the words of Mark Twain, who wrote about these cities.
Of course, it was that infamous bridge between Davenport and Rock Island that Chicago railroad interests built decades before St. Louis completed the Eads Bridge.
We’ll finish our trip up the Mississippi in the Quad Cities (we’ve looked at Dubuque in the past, which is a real stunner of a city further north).
I am very excited to see the river towns review. As a history buff, I read that a book by a steamboat pilot, whose whom was St Louis. He told of picking up apples in Hannibal and transporting them down the Mississippi to St Louis.
Thanks, Chris.