2004—6 July: Alexandria
Under mostly-propitious 6th-of-July weather, Hepzibah and I set out to explore the near south of the Keokuk environs. Crossing the Des Moines River on U.S. Highway 61, we found ourselves in the State of Missouri, surrounded by a lot of Midwestern rurality, with many ad hoc fireworks vendors and the odd gas station.
Pausing at a gas-station-cum-deli, I noticed several large gentlemen, mostly in coveralls, surrounding one of the snack-bar tables. After seeing to my personal refreshment, I approached this gathering and inquired whether they could direct me, an itinerant bicycular stranger, to the Pickle-House Slough, which I’d noticed on a map and whose name tickled my onomastic gizzard. They looked at each other for a moment, and then one of them arose, introduced himself as Mayor Bob Davis, and invited me to his pickup truck, parked outside. It appears that I’d interrupted a meeting of the Town Council! 0322PickleHouseSloughew
Pickle-House Slough.
0330BobDavisewMayor Davis on his front porch Turns out that the Slough got its picturesque handle plutôt prosaically: there used to be a pickle factory on its bank… On the way there, Bob recited pieces of the history of his community. I remember best his account of 19th-century cross-Mississippi warfare (actual shooting, from time to time) with Warsaw, over on the Illinois side. And about the Great Flood of 1993, after which the Government offered to buy out the residents and to move them to less-vulnerable places. Which offer, said His Honor, 80% of the population accepted. So that what I got to see was the tough, unbribeable, immovable residue, both of structures and of people.
He then showed me his house, yard, and extensive garden, as well as the levee that had broken in ’93, and various other points of interest.
Learned eventually that the wonderfully hospitable Bob had written a history of Alexandria. He was willing to part with a copy, for twenty bucks. I’ve preserved that copy in my Family History library, in case you’d like to know more.
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