Tour a Mississippi River Towboat This Month in...

The two-day Grafton Towboat Festival is a great place to learn about one of the United States' most important and most overlooked forms of transportation. All while having a heckuva lot of fun.

The annual free event in Grafton, Illinois, north of St Louis where Illinois bulges out towards Missouri thanks to the bluffs that stretch from Alton to just above Grafton, draws hundreds of visitors to enjoy music, food, and free tours of working towboats. It returns after a year's absence due to 2008 flooding.

This year's event is Saturday and Sunday, June 26th and 27th, 2009 at the historic Grafton Boatworks.

Towboat Background

Barge traffic has been common the muddy Mississippi River since the 1850's when steamboats increased their hauling capacity by pushing a barge ahead of them. In the 1930's, diesil-powered, propeller-driven towboats revolutionized the waterborne cargo-hauling industry. Today's typical barge carries 1500 tons of cargo much more cheaply than some other cargo-haulers. A barge-load is 15 times that of a train car, 60 times greater than that of a tractor-trailer truck.

The typical towboat of today with names like the Mary Harter, Andi Boyd, or the Jay Luhr, ranges in size from 117' x 30' to 200' x 45'. Diesil engines aboard the boats can produce up to 10,000 horsepower.

The word "tow" comes from an era when a draft animal on shore pulled a boat along a canal. In time, rivermen learned they could better control the boats and at the same time haul more cargo by linking the barges together.

Visitors will get a great chance to see just what a working towboat looks like, how the crew operates, where they live, and the conditions they live under. Subject to change, plans are to have two towboats docked at the riverfront and available for tours.

Company flags will also be on display.

Entertainment

Just to provide icing on the cake, there's plenty of entertainment with classic folk, bluegrass and Americana performed by Matt Taul and Friends. Each day, there will be children's activities and a rope throwing contest.

The St Louis Admirals Club R/C Model Boat Club will have exhibits on hand and the US Coast Guard and US Army Corps of Engineers will have their own historical and educational displays set up. There will also be authors and artists on hand displaying and offering their own work.

Chow Down

And there's food. Chief Ralph Smith will guide visitors through a crawfish and shrimp boil, with a demonstration of how to eat these delicacies. There's also BBQ available which has been cooked in a cooker shaped like a towboat, dubber the Pork-N-Canoe.

More than 70 dealers will be set up for the flea market at the Historic Boat Works on Front Street, offering an assortment of antiques, glassware, tools, candles, furniture, and other collectibles and not-so-collectibles.

The event is co-sponsored by the Grafton Chamber of Commerce and Waterways Council, Inc.

Hours Saturday are 10am to 5pm, Sunday 12pm to 2pm. Admission is free.

Grafton and Area Sites

Grafton itself (founded 1836) offers antique and craft shopping, great food to include plenty of fish stands, fine wine, ice cream shops, as well as hiking, bike trails, boat tours, fall colors, winter eagle watching, and an incredible view of the bluffs and the river along the Great River Road. Lodging is available at several bed-and-breakfasts and at Grafton's historic Ruebel Hotel.

For the day-tripper, you can also plan a stop at Pere Marquette State Park and Lodge seven miles west of Grafton, get wet at Grafton's Raging Rivers Water Park, or ride the Grafton Ferry from Illinois to Missouri ($6.50 each way, $12 round-trip) at the foot of Illinois Route 3 (Market Street). You can also follow the Great River Road south-east to Alton to see the Piasa Bird on the bluffs at the edge of town or check out the ruins of the Civil War prison in downtown Alton, before crossing the beautiful Lewis and Clark Bridge into Missouri on your way
back to St Louis.