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         THE IOWA RIVER. By Col. W. W. Garner - The Iowa River, which is navigable for light draught steamboats from its mouth to Iowa City, Iowa, a distance of ninety miles, runs through Louisa County diagonally in a south-easterly course, and empties in the Mississippi River opposite New Boston, Ill.

The steamboat “Rippee,” Capt. Jones, was the first boat to explore the Iowa River, and extended the examination thirty miles above Iowa City, on the 21st of June, A. D., 1841, and in April, 1842, the steamboat “Rock River” made a similar examination. At Wapello, Whipple’s Ferry and Todd’s Ferry, now within the corporate limits of Columbus Junction, were the main ports of entry.

The Cedar River from its mouth to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was also navigable for small steamboats, and the trade well patronized on the two rivers, and boats continued in the trade from 1841 until . . .

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. . . 1860. The last steamboat that went to Iowa City was the "F. P. Benton,” on Sunday, April 29, 1860. Construction of the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad Bridge at Fredonia, Iowa, destroyed navigation.

At the early date of 1822 Hon. George Davenport, of Rock Island, had a permit from the Sac and Fox Indians to build trading-posts on the Iowa River. The first post was erected below the mouth of English River, on the south side, now in Washington County, and in 1837 built a post four miles below Iowa City, now in Johnson County. The supplies of the traders were obtained by the river, in keel and flat boats.