Friday, June 15, 2007

Poking Around the Mississippi: Buffalo Bill, Nathaniel Pryor and Ulysess S Grant

  We had a splendid three day vacation "poking around" the Mississippi River valley after completing that big Lewis and Clark Road Trips mailing to over 700 destinations.  I have always wanted to visit the Buffalo Bill Cody attractions near the Iowa Quad Cities area (Davenport, Rock Island, Bettendorf and Moline) and Interstate 80, and to see the Ulysses S. Grant home in Galena, Illinois about 75 miles north on the other side of the river. For the first time we did a leisurely touring trip, averaging 300 miles a day. That’s a great way to travel, and my book is really set up along that principle.  The book has 79 "travel hubs" or facing pages of information about attractions with maps and driving directions. The fun of "poking around" is that you don’t have to get any place in particular. That’s a real vacation! On the other hand, if you like history and heritage tourism and the great outdoors, you can plan what you want to do. But having it all there in a compact form, gives you "options."  And we do supply phone numbers. And now that I have heard back from so many people, the second edition of the book will be up to date  with all the latest hours and prices and typos corrected. However, first we need to sell out the first edition.  And you can always consult our website trip planner and see if the destinations websites are up to date with the latest information. On the road, or while planning the trip, you can just call ahead and ask because their phones are in my book.

Buffalo Bill in Le Claire, Iowa

We wanted to do something other than Lewis and Clark, after seven years. We didn’t want a working vacation. But, guess what, I found buffalo and an almost 200 year old tavern/restaurant without any planning at all! The buffalo were at the Buffalo Bill Cody Homestead, 12 miles northwest of the Buffalo Bill Museum in Le Claire, Iowa. Le Claire is a tiny town on the Great River Road directly above the Quad Cities and just off I-80. The Buffalo Bill Museum doesn’t have many original Buffalo Bill items, but Le Claire is where he spent several years of his youth. He was born in 1846 on a homestead 12 miles northwest of Le Claire, and then they moved to town. The Cody homestead actually has a small herd of buffalo, including one baby and another on the way. The Cody house is a nice size stone house. Bill’s father Issac Cody was an abolitionist who moved to Leavenworth, Kansas in 1854 to be part of the fight against slavery. After being assaulted while giving a speech against slavery, he suffered from injuries that resulted in his death in 1857 and Bill began earning a living at age 11 to support his mother and sisters.

The old restaurant and tavern dates back to the 1830’s and is called "Sneaky Pete’s." It has a great view of the Mississippi River and is located next to the Buffalo Bill Museum on the riverfront. There are also nearby boat tours.

Nathaniel Pryor and Ulysses S. Grant in Galena, Illinois

Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor of the Corps of Discovery settled in Galena in 1811; where he opened a trading post for the Winnebago Indians and operated a lead smelting furnace. "Galena" is the scientific name for lead ore, and it was the center of the "Lead Mining District of Illinois Country." (The photo above shows a large chunk of lead ore, on exhibit at the U. S. Grant home.) William Clark, the Indian Agent for the Territory, asked him to supply information about Indian activities. The Winnebago attacked Pryor’s trading post on January 1st, 1812,  intending to kill him and his business partner, but they escaped during the burning down of the post. Pryor reenlisted in the army in 1813 and served under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans.

Galena is a famous tourist town on the Mississippi, and the area is very beautiful, with great valleys and rolling hills.  The Ulysses S. Grant home sits on top of the highest hill. A statue of his wife, Julia, overlooks the view of the town below nestled in the hills. The town people gave the house to the Grants in 1865, at the end of the Civil War. Grant had been a clerk in his brother’s leather goods store in Galena at the beginning of the war in 1861. In less than three years, Abraham Lincoln appointed him Commanding General of the Union Armies.  In 1868 he became President of the United States, and served two terms. I doubt there is any more amazing rise to fame in American history than his life story.

For the armchair traveler I am including a photo of Grant’s favorite arm chair in his library study. All the furnishings in the house are original. He took the armchair to the White House.

Posted by Kira Gale on 06/15/2007 at 01:57 PM

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