Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-10-14
VANISHED RIVER TOWNS.
Changes Caused BY New Methods .
Transportation.

Changes Caused BY New Methods Of
Transportation.
From the Davenport Qowa) Democrat.
It Is the fashion to talk about the deca-
dence Of the steamboat business on the Mis-
sissippi These degenerate days. when the
business Is confined to few RATS Of logs
or lumber. a short-line packet or two. and
one boat week either way between st.
Louis and st. Paul. give occasion for plenty
Of invidious comparisons with the old days
of palatial steamers and lows Of FIVE big
barges Of freight, besides the loads on The
boats themselves, Of full cabin lists and fast
time. Of swell passengers and big prof1ts.
But the decay Of the river traffic Is not
confined to the loss Of the boats and the
decrease In their number and tonnage. On
shore all along the river are evidences that
these days are different from those when
the steamboat man was the monarch Of all
men. They are found with melancholy fire.
Quency in the dead and dying towns along
the river, not to mention those other places
that were once prominent shipping points,
OF which hardly a memory now remains.
There are dozens Of such places. They
were built up by the steamboat traffic In
times when railroads were deemed nothing
more than remote possibilities. They grew
ana prospered. They fed the steamers and
the steamers fostered them. Inland towns
mad but small chance beside them. and were
looked upon with contempt as places far in
the backwOodS, hOpeleSsly remote from the
Channels or commerce and communication
and forever doomed to small things.
Wen, within the memory OF men who are
now active on the river. Port Louisa, Louisa
county. some distance below Muscatine was
great grain-shipping point. Half q dozen
Dig warehouses stood there. and there were
evenings. and there was mill. and possi-
bly, another industry or so. The place had
the promise OF growth and increase. 1t
was the place where the wheat and rye and
oats and barley and potatoes Of thousands
OF acres or rich Iowa and Mississippi river
bottom lands found passage on the packets
and barges for the markets Of ST Louis
Memphis and New Orleans. Today there
Is not stick or stone to remind the stranI-
er that men did active and profitable busi-
ness there not many years ago. Till within
few years the brick chimneys Of the mill
stood, near the river bank, and approaching
nearer to 1t every year as the soft earth
cut ana crumbled into the water with the
Hoods. At last the very site has been alb
sorDed by the Mississippi, and has gone
down to build up bar somewhere for Mai.
MekenEies engineers to work and worry
over. rorty miles or so down the river
1nlrty years ago. stood East Burlington
Inc Chicago Burlington and Quincy did
not cross the river there till 1869. and there
was a prosperous town opposite the Iowa
town Of that name. 1t had 200 Yards OF
ievee better than Davenport ever had. and
II Is there today. 1t Is buried under a sand
BAR that chokes the channel in front Of
burlington for half its width. the melan-
choiy. remains OF two or three heads
ana pars above there in former years, all
removed by the change of currents result
ing from the construction of dams across
some or the chutes above.
Six miles below there. on the Illinois side.
IN ChoquoQuon chute, in former years
stood another lot of warehouses similar to
those at Port Louisa. The farmers of Hem
derson and Hancock counties, Illinois. used
10 maui their grain and other produce to
boats In the spring. 1t used to be a race
1or the honor of being the first to enter this
chute ana tap those warehouses The first
and more than that she could not carry
Now there Is not a fragment Of warehouse
or suggestion that there ever was one
there. S'Ae