“Ol’ Man River, he just keeps rollin’ along”

[By Marcia Milner-Brage in Dubuque, Iowa, USA]

The Mississippi River is the river. Oscar Hammerstein’s lyrics are from the 1927 Broadway musical Showboat. The River is metaphor for the relentless, unforgiving life that Joe, the main character, lives working as a stevedore on a showboat.

It’s the river of Mark Twain’s autobiographical Life on the Mississippi and the river that Huckleberry Finn’s adventures play out on.

The Mississippi River is the eastern border of Iowa, where I’ve lived for nearly 30 years. It’s a 100 mile drive, due east from my home in Cedar Falls to Dubuque, Iowa–a city half on the bluff above the River and the rest down on river level. Until recently, Dubuque, for us, was the bottleneck before crossing one of the two bridges into Illinois or Wisconsin. Now that my husband and I are retired, we have the time and health to roam.

These drawings are from two excursions taken in the past month to Dubuque. On the drive there, the scenery is mostly flat farmland. Then 15 miles before Dubuque, the terrain changes drastically to deeply cleft hills, with rocky outcroppings, which evolve into limestone palisades on the Mississippi’s western shore.

Mines of Spain

Julien Dubuque, a French-Canadian pioneer, was the city’s founder. In 1788, the Spanish government deeded him the rights to mine lead. Mines of Spain Park, minutes south from downtown, allows breathtaking glimpses of the River and the State of Illinois on the other side.

Julien Dubuque’s gravesite commands a view of downtown and the Julien Dubuque Bridge (built in 1943), that connects Iowa and Illinois. Here, with my back to the grave, looking north:

Mississippi River at Dubuque

As I sat on my stool drawing, many–young and old–came to look out from this premier spot. It was a Friday and the weather was gorgeous. Obviously, there was good reason to play hooky from school and work. Below, on the River, a barge moved upstream towards Minneapolis/St. Paul to fetch grain and beans, destined at the end of the return voyage to be unloaded onto freighters in the Gulf of Mexico. The occasional recreational houseboat tootled by and a sightseeing steamboat, paddle-wheeler replica made a U-turn just below the gravesite promontory.

There are 29 locks and dams along the Mississippi. Lock and Dam #11, on the northern side of Dubuque, is seen from Eagle Point Park. Across the River is the State of Wisconsin.

We overnighted at the City of Dubuque’s Four Mounds Inn and Conference Center that used to be the early 20th century estate of a prominent local family. In the morning, I painted the view from our second floor room: the River and Wisconsin through the peak-of-autumn-color trees.

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