One of the Toughest, Smartest People I Ever Met

I met Lucille Keil when she was a spry 84-year-old museum guide. She was my docent at the Young Museum in Bellevue, Iowa, leading me around the house filled with souvenirs collected by Joe and Grace Young during their world travels. During that first tour, she scowled when we reached a glass cabinet near

By |2019-06-30T11:28:17-05:00June 30th, 2019|Characters|2 Comments

Growing Small Economies in Dubuque

One of the things I like about traveling is getting to try new things. One of the joys of revisiting familiar places is gauging how much has changed. Dubuque is one of the places that has changed quite a bit. I first visited Dubuque in 2007. In the decade since, the Hotel Julien has been

By |2017-08-29T15:42:44-05:00August 29th, 2017|Blogging the Great River Road|Comments Off on Growing Small Economies in Dubuque

Enduring Benefits of the CCC and WPA

In 1932, the US Gross National Product dropped a record 13% and nearly one-quarter of the adult population was unemployed; in three years 40% of American banks had failed. In the first few weeks after his inauguration in March 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt launched a series of ambitious public works programs to get people

By |2018-12-21T15:00:06-05:00April 9th, 2016|About the Mississippi Valley|Comments Off on Enduring Benefits of the CCC and WPA

The Murals of Montrose

I crossed the Highway 136 bridge back into Iowa and worked my way down maddeningly slow Main Street in Keokuk, a highly engineered but poorly thought out road that put the stop in stoplight. I plodded along toward Montrose, hoping to get there before the local history museum closed at 4. Guillermo "Memo" Dominguez

By |2016-10-21T15:28:07-05:00August 25th, 2015|About the Mississippi Valley|1 Comment

Title

Go to Top