Locks on a river, the Mississippi

When growing up in St. Louis, I sometimes saw the Mississippi River, and the Illinnois, and the Missouri. Looking for something which the theme for Sepia Saturday reminded me of.

How about The Upper Mississippi locks and dams? 

By army corps of engineers - http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/About/Offices/EmergencyManagement/Flood/LocksDams.aspx, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47278018

The above map is very limited, not even including where the Missouri River comes into the Mississippi, near St. Louis.

Lock and dam Upper Mississippi

Melvin Price Locks and Dam is a dam and two locks at river mile 200.78 on the Upper Mississippi River, about 17 miles (27 km) north of Saint Louis, Missouri. The collocated National Great Rivers Museum, at 1 Lock and Dam Way, East Alton, Illinois, explains the structure and its engineering.

Construction began in 1979, the main lock opened in 1990, and the full structure was completed in 1994. It replaced the earlier Lock and Dam No. 26, demolished in 1990, and is the first replacement structure on the Upper Mississippi River nine-foot navigation project.  SOURCE: Wikipedia.

Note, Dam No. 26 does not show on the map pictured above.  

I was taken by my father to see some locks on the Mississippi (I think) near Alton IL. My sister and myself went to college in Elsah IL, which is just north of Alton IL on the Mississippi.  I think it was more likely somewhere near there. That would have been any time from 1950-1963 when I moved away.  So it wouldn't have been the replacement Dam No. 26...maybe the original one.

Here's the original Dam No 26.

Lock and Dam No. 26 was a lock and dam located near Alton, Illinois on the Upper Mississippi River around river mile 202.5.  (The Old Clark Bridge with a swing span rail bridge in between.)

Opened in 1938, its largest lock was 600 feet long. It was demolished in 1990 and replaced by the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, which is also known as Lock and Dam number 26. SOURCE: Wikipedia

Our college was Principia College. In 1934, Principia College graduated its first class as a full four-year institution and in 1935 the college was officially moved to its present-day location in Elsah. In 1993, about 300 acres (120 ha) of the campus was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior.   Source: Wikipedia Here.

Principia's campus sits on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River

I will go into more details about my college (or any early life) elsewhere!

The Great River Road, Illinois Route 100 14 mi (23 km) upstream of Alton. This shows how the bluffs look from the river level.

Here's the Sepia Saturday theme for this week. The water, boats and locks just struck me that I haven't seen anything like them since I was a girl.

Gone Fishing

I've shared these 2 photos before, among the few that were rescued from a fire my Rogers family (grandparents) had in Fort Worth, TX in the 1920s. 

Annie Lou Rogers Wilson was my grandfather's little sister, both of them raised by an aunt and uncle most of their childhoods.  But their mother moved from Walker County TX where they had been born, and lived the rest of her life in Galveston TX.  And at times the children are listed on census records living with her, like the 1900 Galveston Census.  Annie Lou would have been 25 in 1904. She didn't marry until 1906.

 10-30-1904 Annie Lou's Skiff - I'm pretty sure there was also a sailboat attached to this dingy.

10-30-1904 on Hannah's Reef Galveston Bay.

These gentlemen seem to have a fair catch of fish on display themselves, don't they? I don't see anyone resembling a woman who could have been Annie Lou.

For Sepia Saturday this week, we've got a nudge to go out on a boat, or sit by the water, and perhaps catch some dinner as lovely looking as their gentleman has.

I shall be purchasing some salmon at the Tailgate Market this morning, shipped in from Canada.

Annie Lou's skiff

(Author's note.  I've since this post found more information which changes that below.  My grandfather and Annie Lou were not orphaned nor raised by their aunt and uncle.  And the middle name of Elmore refers to a distant relation of their uncle, named Elmore Ross, from the Revolutionary War. See newer posts about Annie Lou Rogers Wilson. Note date: May 9,  2015)

Remember there were pirates active in the Gulf of Mexico still at the turn of that century.

Annie Lou Gibbs Rogers Wilson was my father's father's sister, born March 10,1879 in Huntsville, TX, died July 11, 1956 in Hitchcock, TX.  She and my grandfather (2 years older) were orphaned the year she was born and then raised in the home of their father's sister, Alice Luella Rogers Ross and John Elmore Ross.  They might have been their god-parents, because my grandfather and my father's middle names were also Elmore, or maybe there was someone else named Elmore that I have yet to learn about.  Whoever Elmore was will have to be another story.  But perhaps Annie Lou brought Alice Luella's middle name forward also?

Though Great-Aunt Annie Lou was alive in my lifetime, I don't remember ever meeting her.  It's probably because I was just a child, and only interested in childish things.

I found some interesting photos - of her "skiff" and/or a sailboat in Galveston, TX.  They look like they've been in a fire. (My father's family had a house fire in Fort Worth in the 30s). This is the condition in which they came down to me.

October 30, 1904

10-30-1904

Annie Lou's Skiff

10-30-1904

on

Hannas reef

Galveston Bay

In none of these photos do I see anyone resembling a woman of 1904.  But it's  possible.  Maybe the shorter person on the end of the fish display could be a woman dressed as a man.

Who are the other men?
I wonder if Great-Uncle Chauncey is one of them, perhaps the one with mustache and bowler hat, since he owned the bank in Galveston. (He was my grandmother's uncle).

I wonder if my grandfather, George Elmore Rogers is one of them, probably a rather short man, because I do remember that he wasn't very tall.

Incidentally, George Elmore Rogers married Ada Phillips Swasey in June 1905, (my grandparents).  Aunt Annie Lou married Patrick Henry Wilson the next year, 1906, and then they had 3 children.

So this is a glimpse of the life of my great-aunt as a young woman, or at least the men who went fishing with her.

I love that it was called Annie Lou's skiff, meaning probably the rowboat. 

I'm submitting this post to Sepia Saturday this week.
It's about boats after all!