IOWA HISTORY PROJECT

Chapter LIV (incomplete)

Burlington Saturday Evening Post

Capt E. H. Thomas

CHARM OF TRIP ON BIG RIVER

When Winona Loved and Heart was Sad  

Stolen Interviews With Cheppawa Lover--War Memories

   In Minneapolis there is a published weekly newspaper called the Improvement Newsletter, My old Friend Capt Fred A. Bill sends a copy containing an article of the charms of the big river.  The author of this article is Elliott Randall some extracts follow:

Charm of The Mississippi River Trip

By Elliott Randall

  Thousands of people in Minneapolis and vicinity have a vacation every summer and many travel miles to see some sense of renown or magnificent scenery.  They spend hundreds of dollars, sit on hotel verandas, and come home tired and refreshed while here at our very doors after an inexpensive summer trip on one of the most beautiful waterways of the world.  Why go to the Adirondacks the Hudson, the Colorado resorts, beautiful though they may be when one can take a boat at St. Paul and in about eight days be back again after a delightful trip on the Mississippi from here to St. Louis and return?  The American public does not realize this nor do many of the people in St. Paul and Minneapolis, but the fact is that the pleasure seeker, the automobilist, the teacher, the convalescent and the business man can find no more enjoyable trip than that on the Mississippi.

   Across the landing stage as the summer glides along of the dock in St. Paul there is always a shipload of converts to the “See America First,” idea of cool breezes, rippling water and picturesque bluffs that are calculated to infuse enthusiasm.

   There is a fascination in this beautiful waterway which lingers long after one is left its banks.  The picture lover could take his camera, the automobilist his machine, and the world at large prepared to have the time of their lives on a stream which is filled with unwritten essence.  It was in 1667 that Father Marquette first heard of a mighty stream going south.  In his little mission of St ace he heard the Indians tell of a mighty Messa sa he that divided one sea from another and that flowed to the sea.  With Louis, Joliet, a courier he started with a commission from the French government in search of the river.  In a libraries one can get copies of old maps which show their voyage down the shores of Lake Michigan to Green Bay and from there into the river and Lake Winnebago.  A port was required to reach the Wisconsin--- and drifting down its broad current it came at last to the Great River the waters flowed to the sea. 

   The Upper Mississippi  scenery has remained practically unchanged from that time to this.  Beginning at St. Paul the shores present a verdant fairyland. The land widens into grassy channels and great bluffs draw near the waters edge.  Often they are of solid rock carved by hand for ages into fantastic shapes, colored and covered with a beautiful mist.  From the junction of the St. --and Mississippi the crags and low rocks seem primeval as seen from the boats deck they present a never to be forgotten picture.  One passes Red Wing and its colleges, touches at pretty Winona and then travels through a region where there is no hint of man save his railroad on shore.  La Crosse is seen later, Prairie Du Chien is passed famous for queer shaped Indian mounds, mute statements to the industry of a race that has passed off the earth.  Another [rest of article missing].