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Mississippi River Journey

Old-time paddle wheelers again rule the Upper Mississippi River, if only for a week or so this summer, as 54 riverfront towns stage Grand Excursion 2004. Spanning 400 miles and four states, it's likely the biggest event along the river since the first Grand Excursion a century and a half ago. There's a lot to celebrate, from the river's natural treasures to comeback towns. Join the party!

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Cruising the Upper Mississippi

Cruising the Upper Mississippi

(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: MARCH/APRIL 2004)

Fireworks exploded over the Mississippi River, lighting the night sky above the ports of Davenport and Lilenthal (eventually Bettendorf), Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island, Illinois. The flashes revealed stern-wheelers, fancy as giant wedding cakes, their tiers of decks packed with cheering passengers waving to crowds lining the banks. One by one, the boats cast off and disappeared into the black of the wilderness night.

The year was 1854, and the seven vessels (or five, depending on which account you read) were headed into little-known waters. Their 1,200 passengers outnumbered the total combined populations in settlements north along the river to the capital of the Minnesota territory, St. Paul (population: 6,000, with no twin in sight yet).

Organizers didn't expect this trip to be called the Grand Excursion, or that it would trigger a boom along the Upper Mississippi. The builders of the new Rock Island Railroad tracks linking Chicago and the river simply intended to promote travel on their trains to what then was the "wild west. " The trip was free, and the list of notables who signed on just kept growing.

More than 1,600 politicians, journalists and assorted dignitaries packed into 18 railcars in Chicago, and chugged west. Among those on hand was former President Millard Fillmore, who was already sinking into obscurity.

Only two thirds of the travelers could squeeze onto boats waiting at Rock Island. The party overwhelmed the few riverside hamlets where they stopped to "wood up. " Folks in Trempealeau, Wisconsin, had never seen the like, especially when Abby Fillmore, the former president’s daughter, commandeered a horse and galloped up a bluff, waving from the top.

The overloaded boats traveled day and night (faster than the stately pace that had been planned) and arrived in St. Paul a full day early. No welcoming party waited, and horse-and-buggy owners charged an unheard-of $25 for rides up the hill to the territorial capitol. Most reporters were too busy extolling the river valley’s splendor to take much notice of the outrageous price.

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