7-26-24 Keokuk, IA

Rob planned the trip out from home, I planned the trip back to home.  How did Keokuk, Iowa make the roster?  Let me explain how it works:  I have a USA map (Yes, a paper one.) laid out in front of me.  Kansas City was a bucket list item for me.  I don’t know what the haps are in KC, therefore, I need to find out.  So I put my L finger on KC and my right finger on Utica.  Then, I ballparked a midway point and Keokuk, IA won this one.

 

There is a paddlewheel steamboat permanently dry-docked in town.  It was originally the S.S. Thorpe until George M. Verity bought it.  The function of the Verity was to push barges up and down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.  George made good use of it to move the coal necessary to manufacture his product, Armco steel.  The Verity is now a museum and visitors can explore all over the vessel, including the engine room, boiler room, living quarters, mess and the bridge.  The boat was capable of moving 10,000 tons of cargo, 20,000,000 pounds, on the barges it pushed up and down the river.  A flood in 2008 did serious damage to the Verity and it was brought out of the water and put on land.

Verity's paddlewheel and one
of the 3 rudders

Among the crew, there were 2 or 3 women
who did laundry and cooked the meals.
This is the kitchen area and the table
where the big shots ate.

Stinky guys,
like the ones who worked in
the engine room, were 
relegated to eating in this
separate area where the women
didn't have to smell them.

Captain Rob

One of the huge pistons that
drive the paddlewheel

In the boiler room

George M. Verity

Flood of 2008 that damaged the Verity

Diver's shoe weighted with
about 25 lb. of lead.  Would you
jump in the water wearing these?
Me, neither!

Crew's quarters

The engineer in the engine room 
could communicate with the
Captain by shouting into this
horn or putting an ear to it to listen.

 

The 38’ drop in the Mississippi River at Keokuk and the shallowness of the water made it impossible to navigate.  Back in about 1907, bids went out to anyone who might want a dam project.  Three hundred bids went out.  There was not much interest in this massive project.  There is a saying, “When Hell freezes over.”  Back then, it was, “When someone dams the Mississippi River.”  Of the bids that went out, there was only one proposal submitted:  by Hugh Lincoln Cooper.  He was a self-educated civil engineer and a genius who considered no challenge too great.  He had just finished building a hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls and was hungry for a new challenge.  Cooper designed and oversaw the dam project and it was completed in 2 ½ years.  It originally called for 30 generators but the flow of water could effectively drive 15.  Still, this was a substantial number and was considered the largest power plant in the world at that time.  To this day, the achievement of Hugh L. Cooper generates enough electricity to power 75,000 homes.  The associated Lock # 19 accomplished 1,769 lockages last year assisting in the transportation of over 15 million tons of goods.  It could easily be considered one of the engineering wonders of the world.

View of the dam from upstream

One of the original turbines

This trophy was presented to
Hugh Cooper by the citizens of
Keokuk as a thank you for creating
the lock, dam and power plant.
He left it in Keokuk when he departed
saying that it rightfully belonged here.

Cooper's thank you document

A white pelican teenager 
hanging out below the dam

Power plant and lock # 19

Cooper's drafting table in the museum

 

The only national cemetery in Iowa is in Keokuk.  It originated during the Civil War when 600 Union soldiers and 27 unknown soldiers died in the military hospital here.  Eight confederate soldiers were also buried here when they died in prison.  It is now the resting place of more than 6,000 servicemen and women and their spouses.  The oldest gravestones have no birth or death dates and we presume that these were those who died during the Civil War.

"Unknown"

Sentry guards our brave heroes

 

The second largest water tower in the nation is located here in Keokuk.  It holds 4 million gallons, that is 32 million pounds, of water.  Don’t ask me what the largest one is.  Google doesn’t know.  It was fun to see this monstrous structure.  I walked 134 steps around the base and by my calculations, that puts the base area of this big-ass water tower at roughly 5-6,000 square feet.  Just in case you’re wondering.

If you look closely, 
you can see Rob
at the base of the tower.

Looking up.... holy buckets!

 

This is all I know about Keokuk, IA.  We read our itinerary wrong and stayed one night more than originally planned.  Probably just as well because packing up on the day we were supposed to depart would have been accomplished in a deluge.  Three inches of rain fell in one hour and there were flash flood alarms screaming on our phones. 

More holy buckets and buckets!

We survived it but left a day late due to brain fade.  Unfortunately, we are also experiencing a slide malfunction.  We drove 320 miles today, including a one-hour-long detour, with the slide not fully retracted.  Naturally, these things happen on the weekend.  Our itinerary is modified now while our repairman waits for parts.  Shit happens to these beasts and we deal with it but we’re grumpy.  Now that we’re parked, a martini is helping to put some latitude in our attitudes!

Attitude adjustment in Noobee