September 2024 - Exploring the Mississippi River in Iowa!

Sunset on the Mississippi River

It’s never too soon for another trip!

Following our cruise to the Mediterranean, Vicki and I took a few days to wash clothes, recover from jet lag and file all the wonderful memories of Italy and Greece.  We, along with Mom, then turned our sites to the Mississippi River as it flows through Iowa.  While Mom and I had pretty well explored the Western half of Iowa, we had not ventured much past Des Moines in the middle of the state, so this seemed like the perfect adventure!

As Vicki hadn’t had the opportunity to see the Covered Bridges of Madison County, we started our trip passing through Winterset on the first day, planning to head to the Southeast Corner of Iowa, and then making our way up the Mississippi to the Northeast corner of the state where he borders both Wisconsin and Illinois.

Winterset, Iowa the home of John Wayne, the County seat for Madison County and a beautiful part of Iowa.

 It is also the home to 6 remaining covered bridges.  We took in 3, two that Mom and I had missed on our last trip to Winterset. The bridges are quaint and impressive – the structure of them is amazing and that they have survived for well over 100 years is a testament to their solid engineering.

Amish Country was next on our list, and we headed to Bloomfield, Iowa.  The town was very cute, and it would be fun to spend more time there, but as we were searching an Amish experience for Vicki, we headed out of town to the side roads where we visited an Amish Grocery, Wood working Shop and a General Store - - Unfortunately, Vicki didn’t get a chance to see any Amish Buggies on the road and we were a bit too early for seeing the Amish harvesting with horse drawn equipment.

From there we headed to the very Southeastern Corner of our journey to overnight in the little town of Nauvoo, Illinois. 

We put in the hotel address and followed Google to the hotel that I’d booked…in the middle of nowhere!  In fact, it’s in the middle of corn fields!  It was actually a 2-bedroom apartment that we had for the night and we were pleasantly surprised by the unit, as well as by the hospitality of the owner as expressed in a notebook of things to do that we found in the room.  The office had closed at 4:00, and we gathered our room key from a lock box, so the notebook was our only introduction to the area. 

From the very beginning it seemed like we’d stumbled on to something unique in Nauvoo, Illinois.  We drove into town, to the only restaurant that was open “off season,” the Hotel Nauvoo for their down-home country buffet.  It was a charming hotel, and the food was excellent – we enjoyed every bite and left with the notion of a quick drive through this little town prior to heading back (a few miles out of town) to our hotel.  On our way home (to the hotel) we were joined by a grasshopper - which kept us all jumping as we tried to keep track of him inside the car, while I drove!

As we explored, it became clear that Nauvoo isn’t your normal little town.  With only a population of 950, it is overwhelmed by a huge Mormon Temple and also has a Catholic Cathedral that dominate the skyline. 

A quick history – when the Mormon’s were fleeing from the persecution in Missouri, they headed to this small town in Illinois (then named Commerce, not Nauvoo).  In 1842 Joseph Smith moved to Nauvoo where he served as Mayor until his death in 1844 and shortly thereafter most of the Mormon’s were forced out of the region and wound up in Salt Lake City.  There followed for a few years a utopian socialist commune here headed by the Icarians.  It didn’t last long and soon it became the largest German-speaking community in Illinois and remained so for 50 years.

Some of the buildings that housed the Mormons were preserved in a Nauvoo Historical District.  In 1999 the Mormons decided to build a temple in this town, and it was dedicated in June 2002.  In 2024 they purchased the Nauvoo Historical District from the town, and it is now all preserved as a historical site for the church.  It feels a bit weird to be wandering through this community – most of it well preserved, the huge temple dominates the skyline, and it is a mecca of sorts for the members of the church.  It was pretty!  We had a beautiful sunset over the Mississippi that night too – It’s the first picture up above.

Day two took us through Fort Madison, Iowa where we saw a replica of the Fort that served from 1808 to 1813 as a military outpost – It was the site of Chief Blackhawk’s first battle against the US troops in the War of 1812.

The city is also home to several beautiful churches, and, as we drove through town, we also came across an old building that looked a bit like a castle – it is the Historic Iowa State Penitentiary which was built around 1839.  The Penitentiary has moved down the road about 1.5 miles, and the historic buildings are being repurposed for education, economic, historic and community purposes.

From there we headed up the road to Burlington, Iowa.  It is full of beautiful churches, and a nice shopping district that we enjoyed exploring.  All day we had been able to keep just a few miles in front of a rainstorm – it caught up with us in Burlington for just a few minutes, but we then headed on to Muscatine, Iowa, our next overnight destination.

Muscatine was an interesting little town – in the late 1800’s a German immigrant arrived in Muscatine.  He discovered that freshwater mussel shells made a stronger button that other materials, and he set to work to take over the button industry.  Muscatine became the “Pearl Button Capital of the World” in 1905, more than 1.5 billion pearl buttons were made in Muscatine.  We enjoyed a visit to the Pearl Button Museum and then wandered through the town until supper time.  We ate at a lovely outdoor bar that overlooked the Mississippi – The fountain below from a beer keg was cool!  After supper we wandered around Muscatine and discovered that Mark Twain had once lived there (his brother was a resident) and he remarked later “I remember Muscatine for its summer sunsets.  I have never seen any on either side of the ocean that equaled them.”  We must agree that the Mississippi Sunsets were strikingly beautiful!

The next day we wandered on North through small towns in Iowa.

One of the stops we made was to the little town of Wilton, Iowa to see the Muscatine County Freedom Rock. There are “Freedom Rocks” in all 99 counties in Iowa.  In 1999, at the age of 19, the artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen painted a large rock north of Greenfield, Iowa to honor Veterans – He then painted it every year in time to be bright and fresh for Memorial Day.  Bubba has gone on to create Rocks in each county in Iowa – all honoring military serviceman and first responders.  Most counties have created a park around the rock, and we’ve enjoyed visiting many of them in Western Iowa.  This one, in Wilton, Iowa sits next to an old, refurbished train station.  It always brings a smile to my face to see the honor that is reflected in these simple monuments.

Many of the small towns that we visited had murals painted on the sides of buildings - it seems that there is always something to see when you trael through these rural places!

Our next stop was Clinton, Iowa.  It’s a town of about 25,000 and seemed like a nice place – right on the Mississippi, the park that bordered the river was pretty.  As we arrived on Sunday, most of the shops were closed for the day, so we took a brief look around and headed on to our next destination.

the Mississippi River from Clinton, Iowa

While driving towards Dubuque, we came upon a lovely valley that had an incredible set of churches.  The St. Donatus Catholic Church was built of stone and sat up on a hill to the east of the highway.  We pulled in to take a look and discovered a beautiful Lutheran Church, St. John’s, that was across the valley to the West.  It is a bit shocking to see these huge churches dotted across Iowa – usually the Catholic Churches are in small towns, and frequently the Lutheran churches sit out in the countryside. 

Our next stop was at Cziper’s Apple Festival (on the highway to Dubuque).  It’s a family run orchard and they had many kinds of apples, pumpkins and “Grandpa’s Wine” for sale.  It was a nice stop, and we enjoyed the apples and Wine!!

Dubuque is a big city on the edge of the Mississippi, near where Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa share the shore.  With a population of over 50,000 we enjoyed driving through the many historic districts – beautiful old homes, many lovely churches, and some nice views of the river.

From there it was up the road to Decorah, Iowa for the night!

In Decorah we stayed at the Hotel Winneshiek in the Basler Suite.  Decorah was originally the site of a Ho-Chunk village, until the mid-1800’s when they were forced to move out of the area.  In 1840 the first settlers arrived and named the town Decorah after a native leader.  The town was a busy place in the late 1800’s and became a center for Norwegian-American culture.  In the early 1900’s the Hotel Winneshiek was built, and it was grand!  It changed hands a number of times through the years, and there were a few notable “remodels” that detracted from the original beauty of the hotel.  In 1997 the hotel was purchased by a Decorah Native, Helen Basler.  She restored the hotel to its prior glory, and we stayed in the “Basler Suite”, which was lovely.  Attached to the Hotel, was the Steyer Opera House which was built in 1870 – Ms. Basler purchased it also in 1997 and had it restored as well; it now can be rented for private events.  It was locked tight while we were there, but we can imagine how wonderful it too must be, given the fine work that was done on the Hotel.

Decorah is a lovely town – we enjoyed wondering through the shops, eating at a restaurant that was near the hotel, and exploring the side streets of beautiful homes. 

After a good night’s sleep, we headed west and towards home.  We broke up the journey with a night’s stay in Storm Lake, Iowa, where mom and I had stopped on a previous trip.

Storm Lake is just a couple of hours East and North of Omaha, and it’s a lovely lake – we stayed at the Kings Pointe Waterpark Resort – very quiet in late September – and had a lovely room with a view of the lake.

Storm Lake also has an interesting attraction, called the “Heritage Tree Museum”.  It’s located in a park along the lake’s shore and contains an eclectic collection of trees that provide a history of the US; there are over 40 trees, each clearly marked with the type of tree and a brief history.  For instance, there is the General Sherman Maple Tree, which comes from an area near West Point, where General Sherman had his first command.  Each tree tells a story.  Vicki and I enjoyed looking an hour exploring this “museum”. 

We also found that there were chainsaw carvings, sitting on pallets near the parking lot – we figured that there had been some kind of competition that we’d just missed out on, and suspect that these sculptures will be placed around the city, as we saw other similar artwork around town.  They were shockingly good!

As we settled into our last night on this journey we were able to enjoy a sunset over Storm Lake - beautiful sunsets don't just happen over the Mississippi!!