Let me show you around Keokuk just a bit. Some of my favorite places. The above picture is the pond at Rand Park. I remember ice skating on that pond many, many years ago. There were 55 gallon drums that had fires burning in them for warmth. We skated on the River, streams, other ponds, and even a swamp!


That is the HydroElectric Power plant here. Long ago you used to be able to take tours inside. The turbines are huge! Walking over and past the dry docks beside the locks was almost scary the first time I went over there. Later I was kind of jealous that I didn't get to take the down inside tour of the damn. That would have been amazing, I'm sure.



Back in the day you wouldn't have seen this view. High school days meant a lot of cruising Main. The old bridge was there then, so you could drive down the long, long Main street and keep going right down the Victory Park and the river. I sure spent a lot of time in that park! I still love to go there and watch the River flow by. That is Illinois on the other side of the river, and the new bridge looming overhead. It's great to drive across, but it sure messed up "Cruising Main"!

This guy is Chief Keokuk. Or, rather, a statue of him. You should see the pictures of him, or better yet see him in person, when it's fall and those leaves around him are brilliant colors and the sky is so darn blue. It's one my most favorite places to visit here.

So, there are lots and lots more things that I'm sure I'll be sharing with you, but at least now you don't have to completely ask "Keo-what?". And, should you be wondering, it is pronounced Keo-kuk. Not Kilkuk (as many here say) or Kluckkluck (as I've heard it called up in Minnesota). Our town isn't in Missouri or in Illinois, though we border right up to each of those states. It's not paradise nor perfect... and who would want it to be??? I've lived away from here during my life more than I've lived here. Yet, this is home. I'm a Chief, with Purple Pride, probably forever. I can smell the corn processing factory and the rubber factory and the iron smelting factory and I KNOW what each smell means and where it is coming from. Best of all, those smells don't bother me. They are a part of this place. As much a part of Keokuk as is the National Cemetary or the Grand Theater. They belong here as much as the statue of Chief Keokuk or the stately houses on Grand Avenue. They stir the senses as much as the sights and sounds and smells of all that Rand Park has to offer. The Mississippi wanders slowly around the bend that Keokuk sits upon and holds us in it's palm. Holding the land, shaping the bluffs... the mighty river is why Chief Keokuk lived here. It's why our town was settled here. It is the life blood of this place. The sound of it sliding between the banks welomes me home.