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Welcome To THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI TREASURES OF SUMMER AND COLORS OF FALL T e upper reaches of the Mississippi River from dynamic St. Louis to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are rich with frontier tales of fur traders and pioneers set among picturesque geography and abundant wildlife. Hidden gems around each bend of the river fuel your sense of discovery as the very best of America’s Heartland unfolds before you. St. Louis was the hub for riverboats traveling along the Mississippi and the jumping-of point for exploration and settlement of the West. Today, that heritage is ref ected in the shining stainless steel Gateway Arch that curves above the skyline and in the Jef erson National Expansion Memorial that lies beneath. Upriver, St. Paul was once described by Mark Twain as “a wonderful town…put together in solid blocks of honest brick and stone, and has the air of intending to stay.” In Minneapolis, its sister city across the Mississippi River, the Frank Gehry-designed Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, the contemporary Walker Art Museum and the notable Minneapolis Institute of Arts are an art af cionado’s dream. Perhaps no person def ned America’s view of its greatest river more than Mark Twain. Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky T atcher are alive and well in Hannibal, Missouri, Samuel Clemens’ boyhood home. In Cape Girardeau, Missouri, an enormous mural painted on the f oodwall that stretches the length of the downtown area immortalizes 275 years of local progress, wars and achievements. Fur trappers, Mormons, lumberjacks and railroad barons built La Crosse, Wisconsin while in Dubuque, Iowa, looks can be deceiving. What seems like a typical Midwestern city also happens to be one of the “oldest European settlements west of the Mississippi River.” Davenport, Iowa’s inf uence is seen in the smokestacks on the American Queen, which fold forward so she can slip under bridges and power lines. In 1856, a steamboat rammed the city’s newly-built railway bridge and a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln successfully defended the Rock Island Railroad, suggesting the idea of “telescoping chimneys” to avoid future tragedies. In Wisconsin and Minnesota, wildlife takes center stage both on and above the rolling hills and limestone bluf s that cradle the river on its journey through the Heartland. Deer come to the water’s edge and falcons and ospreys soar overhead. View an impressive population of bald eagles on an eco-cruise from Red Wing, Minnesota or at the National Eagle Center in nearby Wabasha. Let the seasons guide your travels as the lush green lawns and colorful f owerboxes of summer give way to the f ery reds, autumnal oranges and electric yellows of the trees celebrating the coming of fall. 28