Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Tag: Great River Road

  • Mississippi River Lock & Dam Number 4

    Between Alma, Wisconsin and Kellogg, Minnesota, USA (June 2009) The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) operates a series of twenty seven locks and dams along the Upper Mississippi River between St. Paul, Minnesota and Granite City, Illinois (near St. Louis). Lock and Dam Number 4 is one of the furthest upstream, as signified…

  • Effigy Mounds National Monument

    Harpers Ferry, Iowa (June 2009) Few people seem to know much about Effigy Mounds National Monument except for those who happen to live along these magnificent stretches of the Upper Mississippi River (map). It is practically unrivaled for its amazing combination of natural beauty and historical importance, with its scenic vistas above the river and…

  • Fort St. Antoine

    South of Stockholm, Wisconsin (June 2009) We noticed an unusual roadside historical marker (map) on our journey down Wisconsin’s portion of the Great River Road just south of the small town of Stockholm. We pulled over to check it out. It read: Wisconsin Official Marker. Site of Fort St. Antoine 1686. Nicholas Perrot was a…

  • Cassville Car Ferry

    Crossing the Mississippi River between Wisconsin & Iowa (June 2009) The Cassville Car Ferry (map) crosses the Mississippi River between Cassville, Wisconsin and Turkey River, Iowa. Bridges across the Upper Mississippi are scarce. The river is wide and in these rural areas making it difficult to justify the cost of construction and maintenance of bridge…

  • Wisconsin’s Great River Road, Day 2

    Day 2 along Wisconsin’s portion of the Great River Road began in La Crosse. We kept the same leisurely pace as the previous day. Later in the day we strayed from a purely Wisconsin route just to liven things up a bit. We crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa using the Cassville Ferry traverse. From…

  • Wisconsin’s Great River Road, Day 1

    My recent discussion of the Great River Road was a bit of a setup. We took a short journey along Wisconsin’s portion of the road, and into Iowa over the weekend. The scenery along the bluffs of the Mississippi River could only be described as spectacular; soaring cliffs towering over the ever-changing nature of the…

  • The Great River Road

    The Great River Road is a bit of a misnomer for it isn’t a single road. Rather many different roads commingle along a common theme, tracing a route along the Mississippi River. This scenic designation runs contiguously through ten of the United States. By extension it also enters two Canadian Provinces, a total length of…