The Grand Excursion was a promotional voyage by train and steamboat into the Upper Mississippi River valley, USA that first took place in June 1854. It marked the first railroad connection between the East Coast and the Mississippi River, and it included dignitaries such as former president Millard Fillmore. In 2004, 150 years later, the Grand Excursion route was retraced by both riverboats and a steam locomotive.
The original excursion of 1854 was organized to promote the opening of a new rail line between Chicago and Rock Island, Illinois. This line was the first railway link from the eastern United States to the Mississippi River, and thus a more than symbolic moment in westward expansion, allowing for commerce and westward immigration, and ultimately a complete rail line to the Pacific coast.
The route took travelers overland from Chicago, Illinois to Rock Island, Illinois, then upriver to Saint Paul, Minnesota Territory on several steamships. Approximately 1,200 people took part in the Excursion, many of whom were noted reporters and distinguished residents from the Eastern United States. Among these were then-popular novelist Catharine Sedgwick and former president President Millard Fillmore, who was widely rumored to be considering another campaign for the Presidency. News of the planned trek spread widely in the months prior to it taking place, so it generated a fair amount of press attention. Along with The Song of Hiawatha , which was published around the same time, accounts of this journey have been widely credited with influencing people to visit and often settle in the region in the late 19th century.
The first leg of the journey was by rail, and took the visitors from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois via the Rock Island Railroad. Then, passengers were transferred to several steam-powered paddlewheelers for the trek upriver. The steamboats stopped several times daily to load up on firewood, but still traveled fairly quickly—they unexpectedly appeared a day earlier than planned in St. Paul. Once in the area, many travelers hiked overland to see the Falls of St. Anthony, the only waterfall on the Mississippi River, in what is now Minneapolis. During a brief ceremony at the falls, a jar of water taken from the Atlantic Ocean was poured into the falls in a symbolic "mingling of the waters."
A repeat of the journey marking its 150th anniversary (sesquicentennial) ran from June 25 to July 5, 2004.
The 2004 Grand Excursion retraced the route of the original trek, using several historic vehicles on the route. In addition to celebrating the 150th anniversary of the original event, it was used as a celebration of the reclamation of the Mississippi River. The river had become very polluted as the population of the region grew. Extensive efforts have been made to clean it up since the mid-20th century. The river remains fairly polluted, but it is much cleaner than it once was. It also celebrated the redevelopment of the riverfront areas for many communities. For many years, the riverfront area was neglected. In recent times, communities along the route have recognized the cultural importance of the riverfront, and have undertaken extensive redevelopment efforts.
A steam locomotive, the Milwaukee Road 261, pulled a collection of historic railroad cars on the route from Chicago to the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa. Steamboats (or at least boats with an appropriate appearance) then traveled up the river to the Twin Cities in Minnesota, stopping daily and often becoming part of other festivities planned in local communities. Some of the steamboats were initially delayed due to high water on the river, which prevented the tall ships from passing under bridges, but they soon caught up with the other boats. It included many stops at towns on the river that were along the route. Some of the stops included Dubuque, Iowa, Guttenberg, Iowa, and La Crosse, Wisconsin. Since 1854, extensive rail networks have been built, so the train headed by the Milwaukee 261 followed the flotilla upriver on nearby tracks. For a while, it was also joined by Canadian Pacific 2816.
Since they came a day early, there was little fanfare when original Grand Excursion boats arrived in Minnesota (then Minnesota Territory). St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly said the city would make up for that in 2004 by promising, "Church bells will ring, cannons will fire, bands will play, flags will wave and the bridges will be decked with bunting and signs."
The boats participating in the 2004 Grand Excursion included: Anson Northrup , Celebration Belle , Delta Queen , Harriet Bishop , Julia Belle Swain , La Crosse Queen , Mississippi Queen , and Spirit of Peoria .
The Mississippi River is the primary river, and second-longest river, of the largest drainage basin in the United States. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,340 miles (3,766 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the thirteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
The Quad Cities is a region of cities in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are the center of the Quad Cities metropolitan area, which as of 2013 had a population estimate of 383,781 and a Combined Statistical Area (CSA) population of 474,937, making it the 90th-largest CSA in the nation.
U.S. Route 61 or U.S. Highway 61 (U.S. 61) is a major United States highway that extends 1,400 miles (2,300 km) between New Orleans, Louisiana and the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River and is designated the Great River Road for much of its route. As of 2004, the highway's northern terminus in Wyoming, Minnesota, is at an intersection with Interstate 35 (I-35). Until 1991, the highway extended north on what is now Minnesota State Highway 61 through Duluth to the Canada–U.S. border near Grand Portage. Its southern terminus in New Orleans is at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. The route was an important south–north connection in the days before the interstate highway system.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and also in Texas through subsidiaries Colorado and Southern Railway, Fort Worth and Denver Railway, and Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver. Because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans "Everywhere West", "Way of the Zephyrs", and "The Way West".
Milwaukee Road 261 is a class "S3" 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Schenectady, New York in July 1944 for the Milwaukee Road.
The Illinois Central Railroad, sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. A line also connected Chicago west to Sioux City, Iowa (1870). There was a significant branch to Omaha, Nebraska (1899), west of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and another branch reaching Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1877), starting from Cherokee, Iowa. The IC also serviced Miami, Florida, on trackage owned by other railroads
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The Julia Belle Swain is a steam-powered sternwheeler currently under restoration in La Crosse, Wisconsin, US.
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The La Crosse Rail Bridge is a swing bridge that spans the Mississippi River between La Crescent, Minnesota and La Crosse, Wisconsin. The first bridge in this location initially was designed and ready to build by June 1876, and was completed in November 1876 by the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, a predecessor of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. It was later replaced in 1902. It is at the Western end of the Canadian Pacific Railway Tomah Subdivision. Amtrak's Empire Builder crosses this bridge.
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The Aurora Subdivision or Aurora Sub is a railway line in Wisconsin and Illinois operated by BNSF Railway. It is part of BNSF's Chicago, Illinois, to Seattle, Washington, Northern Transcon. This segment runs about 262 miles (422 km) from the St. Croix Subdivision in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to the Chicago Subdivision in Aurora, Illinois.
Joseph Reynolds was an American entrepreneur and founder of the Diamond Jo Line, a transportation company which operated steamboats on the upper Mississippi River. In his youth, while still living in upstate New York, he operated a butchery, a general store, a grain mill, and a tannery.
Diamond Jo Boat Store and Office, also known as the Dubuque Tank Terminal Co. and Inland Molasses Co. Operations Office, is a historic building located in Dubuque, Iowa, United States. This is the last remaining structure in the city that is associated with the steamboat era on the Mississippi River. Several other buildings associated with this line were destroyed in a 1909 fire. This building housed the headquarters of the Diamond Jo Line from the mid-1880s until it was sold to the Streckfus Line in 1911. Originally headquartered in McGregor, Iowa, Joseph Reynolds started in the steamboat business after the American Civil War shipping wheat Minnesota and the Chicago and Northwestern railhead at Fulton, Illinois. In the last quarter of the 19th century the Diamond Jo Packet Line was one of the most active steamboat lines on the upper Mississippi. As railroads gradually took the freight business away from steamboats, Reynolds started to build passenger boats and he bought boats from other lines. The offices were located on the east end of the simple, two-story, brick building, and the rest was used for storage. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The structure resides at the corner of Jones and Water St. in Dubuque Iowa.
Streckfus Steamers was a company started in 1910 by John Streckfus Sr. (1856–1925) born in Edgington, Illinois. He started a steam packet business in the 1880s, but transitioned his fleet to the river excursion business around the turn of the century. In 1907, he incorporated Streckfus Steamers to raise capital and expand his riverboat excursion business. A few years later, the firm acquired the Diamond Jo Line, a steamboat packet company.
Verne Swain refers to three steamboats built by the Swain Shipyard of Stillwater, Minnesota. Swain built the first one in 1886, the second one in 1904, and the last one in 1913.
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