Dubuque, Mississippi River

Rounding the bend on the Mississippi, I cruise into Dubuque, Iowa’s oldest city. The claim feels justified. The river-hugging hills tell the story of lead mining that shaped the city’s earliest days. 

It is here that Julien Dubuque, after whom the town is named, obtained permission from the Spanish government, which controlled this area, to dig for lead in the late 18th century. Dubuque was very successful working closely with the Meskwaki tribe, which had been mining the area for centuries. Establishing a trading port, and had the town named after him. Today, the mining site has been converted into the Mines of Spain State Park. It is rich in archaeology, containing prehistoric settlements, old mine sites, and the remains of Dubuque’s trading post. More than 15 mi (24 km) of trails offer numerous routes for summer hiking or winter cross-country skiing. As I take a leisurely walk, I picture miners clambering over these same ridges, carts full of ore clanking as they worked. I can almost feel them straining under the weight, the sweat running down their faces, and hear the rhythm of the pick against the rock echoing through the hills.

Perched on a bluff overlooking the river, I come across Dubuque’s monument, a castle-like limestone structure rising 25 ft (8 m) that marks his gravesite. Its weathered walls stand as a silent sentinel over the hills and the river, a reminder of the man who shaped this place.

Next, I couldn’t resist taking a ride up the hill on the Fenelon Place Elevator. This quirky funicular is tiny, steep, and absurdly fun. At just 296 ft (90 m) long, it climbs 189 ft (58 m) in elevation at a sharp 41° angle. I love that it was built by a grumpy banker, J.K. Graves, who was tired of hauling himself up to his hilltop home on a long, bumpy horse-and-buggy ride from his downtown office. He petitioned to build this railway for his convenience — a shortcut, you might say, like a lift to get home for lunch or maybe take a nap.

Now I’m perched in a little car, zipping past old brick buildings and rooftops, thinking how convenient and cheekily clever that must have been back in 1882. The view from the top is incredible, with Dubuque sprawled beneath me and the Mississippi carrying on like a silver ribbon. Here’s a neat fact: George R. R. Martin, the author of the Game of Thrones series, was a professor at Clarke University in Dubuque. He rode the funicular many times and drew inspiration from it, later quoting, “My favourite among the town’s historic landmarks was the Fenelon Place Elevator... I rode up the elevator many a time, and later borrowed it for my werewolf novella, The Skin Trade.”

A short drive from Dubuque, in nearby Dyersville, Iowa, is the iconic baseball field from the movie Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner. His famous line, “If you build it, he will come”, plays in my head as a vision of the “Ghost Players” takes shape in my imagination. 

Heading back to my boat, I made a final stop at Dubuque’s old Shot Tower. Built in 1856, it was once used to produce lead shot. The method was simple yet ingenious: molten lead was poured from a grate at the top of the tower and dropped through the air. On its way down, it formed spherical droplets that landed in the water below, where they cooled into near-perfect spheres for ammunition. During the Civil War, the shot tower would have supplied soldiers with musket balls, while the rest of the town toiled in the mines and other industries. It’s a relic now, one of the last ones in the US, but thankfully, it has been restored after years of neglect.