DUBUQUE, IOWA 8-17-2017

Back up the truck for a minute.  There are some folks I must mention that have a claim to fame.

A black servant of a wealthy family in LaCrosse had a son, George Coleman Poage, who was quite a prodigy.  For one thing, George excelled in his studies and was valedictorian at his high school graduation.  He was also a champion in track and became our first black athlete to medal in the Olympics, winning two bronze in 1904.

In the early 1800s, a fellow named Cadwallader Washburn, another resident of LaCrosse, devised a better way to grind wheat into flour.  He entered a competition and, for the quality and fineness of his flour, he won!  Guess what he won.  Yup, a Gold Medal.  Mr. Washburn was a General in the Civil War and later, a company was formed that produced, for one thing, his high quality Gold Medal flour:  General Mills.

Two other famous people, Lindy Kraus DeLaMare and Carolyn (Conway) Phelan have been friends since freshman year of high school, about a half century ago.  (Jeez.)  Carolyn and Rich live right on the river in Clinton, Iowa, an hour south of Dubuque and happily, they paid us a visit here on the boat.  After the grand tour including a trip to the engine room, we sat down for brunch at the café on deck 3.  Then, they offered to show us around Dubuque.

Rich, Lindy, Carolyn, Roberto

 

There is a big pretty park along the river called Eagle Point high on the hills where you can watch ships traverse through lock # 11. 

There was a lot of wealth created here in Dubuque when a mother lode of lead was discovered, mined and marketed (in ~1788) and the very wealthy lived in magnificent homes up on these bluffs.  One of them was J. K. Graves, a banker, the town mayor and a state senator.  Allowing an hour and a half for lunch, in those days of the horse a buggy, was still not enough time to climb the hills, lunch, take a power nap and get back to work.  Mr. Graves came up with an idea. 

Riding Mr. Graves' elevator!

Two elevator cars passing in the middle

He hired an engineer, John Bell, to build him a cable car that would carry him straight up and down the bluff.  It was intended for his private use but soon, others who thought that was a brilliant and efficient creation began asking for rides.  In 1884, it was opened to the public for 5 cents per ride.  Fires destroyed the invention a few times and in 1893 during a recession, money was tight.  So tight that Mr. Graves could not afford to rebuild the lift.  The folks up on the hills had come to depend on the elevator and so a group chipped in to form the Fenelon Place Elevator Company.  The two little counterbalanced (funicular) cars are still in business today, carrying ~6 people/car up and down the cliff, passing each other midway.

Left arrow, green bridge over to Wisconsin.  Right arrow, gray bridge to Illinois.
 Between them, the American Queen.

Dubuque is situated at the point where three states converge.  If you travel west to east on the green bridge, you arrive in Wisconsin.  If you do the same on the gray bridge, you land in Illinois.  Where we stood on the veranda of our stateroom on the boat, we were in Iowa.  When Carolyn and Rich left us, we didn’t really say good bye because we were to see them one more time.  At 12 midnight, Carolyn called me from the dock at their house on the river.  “I can see you!”  It was black outside and it was difficult to make her out so she went inside and stood in the lighted bay window.  We blinked our flashlights at her and we all laughed and waved.  “Hi Carolyn!”  “Hi Lindy!  Hi Rob!”  Back in 1963, we two little girls would never have dreamed up this scenario in a million years!  What a thing!

On to the quad cities:  Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island and Moline.