The Big Rivers

I slept well at the Garden of the Gods campground in Southern Illinois. 

After rising, I went about my morning ablutions, then made a sausage & egg concoction on the camper stove, got dressed and set off in the truck to continue to explore this portion of southern Illinois. I continued southward on the quiet two-lane highway, following the west bank of the Ohio River and eventually came to a town named Golconda, Illinois . This is the seat of Polk County and has a nice looking brick courthouse which was built in 1871. 

There are flood walls that were built around the town many years ago to protect it from being inundated as it had been several times in previous centuries.  I visited in the courthouse and saw old photos of previous floods where the town was submerged. 

Polk County Court House

Court House and Town Flooded

On further reading, it turns out that this is an infamous place where the Trail of Tears  passed through. The Trail of Tears was the forced removal of tribes from the Southeast United States in the 1830s. It brought the Chickasaw, Chocktaw, Cherokee, and other tribes on their forced march from the southeast United States and to their ultimate destination of the Oklahoma territories. The Indians were forced to pause the eastern shore of the Ohio and wait for an the inordinate amount of time for the ferries to be cleared so that the Indians could be transported across. A number of the old and the weak died while waiting for this to occur. Also some of the locals attacked individual Indians and basically murdered them. Then the murderers sued the United States to be paid for the burial of their victims. Grotesque and Evil!

The town itself was interesting to see (only around 700 residents). After looking at the old buildings on Main Street, I drove down to the Shores of the Ohio to view the river. I saw barges being pushed up the river. A fisherman had a couple poles with lines in the water and we struck up a conversation; Tom and I talked for quite a while about the history of the Ohio river. There’s a book I recommended to him titled That Dark and Bloody River; it discusses  the Indian Wars that occurred along all along the Ohio River from above Pittsburgh down to the confluence with the Mississippi. American Settlers were coming down the river in the later 1700s and the Indians were not ready to give up their land without a fight.. It’s a heck of a story and I strongly recommend the book for anyone interested in the deeper history of the area. 

From Colconda  I drove west.  My next destination was Cairo Illinois and Fort Defiance at the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers.

Meeting of the Big Rivers
The Mississippi on the Right; Ohio on the Left

Fort Defiance is another spot that is so significant in terms of early American history. The meeting of these two mighty rivers (Mississippi and Ohio) was the blending of two major stories. So many people have passed this point. Some folks came around this point and then headed north back up either of the two rivers. When Lewis and Clark were on their way to the exploration of the American northwest they came down the Ohio River and then turned and went up the Mississippi to the confluence of the Missouri River and then followed that up and thru what is now Montana and then over the mountains and down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.

When Ulysses S Grant was beginning his Civil War campaign of attack on the Confederacy in 1861, he built up his Army at Fort Defiance which is at the point where the two rivers meet. So I wanted to  stand on this historic spot and look up both rivers.

Union Gunboats Running the Rivers

Fort Defiance Map 1861

I spent about an hour at the point of land looking and photographing and contemplating. From here Grant headed back up the Ohio River and then sent gun boats and troop ships up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to attack both Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. After violent clashes and battles at both forts, the Union took possession from the confederacy and after a short pause grand headed south and ultimately was in a major battle call Shiloh. Eventually, the Union took Nashville.

Grant's Initial Western Civil War Campaign

At some point Grant was back down the rivers onto the Ohio and then turn south down the Mississippi and ultimately attacked Vicksburg  Mississippi and after a long siege and battles the union prevailed and took nearly 30,000 rebels prisoner.

And so it all started from the spot where the Mississippi and Ohio meet. Pretty profound starting place…  I stared and took it all in.  Food for thought.

After lingering,  I got back in the truck and crossed the Mississippi River over to the Missouri side and headed south. At some point I crossed back over into the state of Tennessee and drove on into the night crossing the border into the state of Mississippi and finally found a Walmart at Tupelo and parked my rig on the outskirts of the parking lot, climbing into the back of the camper and went to sleep.