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East-Central Iowa Scenic Drive
Get Away to Grant Wood's Realm
Countryside that inspired the paintings of Iowa-born Grant Wood unfurls serenely as knobby, undulating hills west from the Mississippi River through an east-central section of the Hawkeye State. This 160-mile circular drive from the Mississippi River town of Clinton (30 miles north of the Quad Cities) to the community of Maquoketa takes you through tiny hamlets such as Sabula, St. Donatus and Stone City. Each has its own intriguing story to tell.
You travel along ridges overlooking a landscape that resembles a patchwork quilt stitched in muted colors. This land, which the bespectacled Wood portrayed, wears many faces. Neat farmhouses anchor fields sprinkled with hay bales as big as pickup trucks. From ridge tops, views unfold in the Wapsipinicon, Maquoketa and Mississippi river valleys.
Rent a canoe at Monticello to glide past bluffs of the Maquoketa River, or fish for smallmouth bass and channel catfish. At Maquoketa State Park, you can explore caves. Early settlers held dances in one of them.
Like Wood's art, this region reflects the personalities of its people. The historic town of Maquoketa includes restored homes, antiques stores and art galleries. The Mississippi surrounds the island town of Sabula. In the 1840s, immigrants from Luxembourg built the low, eaveless buildings in the village of St. Donatus, where you can sample Old World specialties and relax at a welcoming bed and breakfast.
The timeless Mississippi nourishes a life of its own. A restored paddle wheeler hosts musicals in Clinton. River craft negotiate the locks in Bellevue. These images and more await, traveling Iowa's scenic byways. Come along and be inspired by the gentle land that moved an American master.
