This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
For those of you who might be tempted to vacation in Minnesota one of these summers, may I direct you to Alfred Swoffer's diary. Swoffer was a young man from Liverpool, England, who accepted an invitation to visit his American relatives in Walnut Grove back in 1888.
Swoffer had embarked from Liverpool on May 1st. Two weeks of travel by ship stagecoach and railroad had brought him to La Crosse Wisconsin on May 17th. As he waited patiently for a long lumber raft to float down the Mississippi before crossing the river, he had time to jot down his first views of Minnesota.
All the arduous voyage had been worth it. It was the Promised Land. "So beautiful, I cannot describe it," he wrote. There was a large grain elevator on the banks of the Mississippi and beyond one of the prettiest valleys he had ever seen. For miles along the river mountains rose up from the water, their rocky tops "quite like castles or fortresses." Here and there a lone house stood among the mountains like Swiss cottages, there was a school with youngsters at play; over there, men and women were busy in the fields, planting Indian corn and potatoes.
Beyond the mountains, the tall grass prairie stretched out even more beautiful. By the time Alfred Swoffer reached Walnut Grove, he was on a high. He slept late the next morning to overcome the hard trip. But he woke eager to explore this New Eden.
But not that morning. "Too wet," he wrote in his diary, "and too much thunder and lightning." "But I'm very comfortable in the house," he added. And a good thing it was. The next day was too wet, and the next to muddy to go anywhere. The rain stopped but was replaced by such a wind that Swoffer was confined to the house once again. Even windier the next day. Then the wind brought a cold front which confined him to the house another day.
Finally, on June 13th, the weather turned warm and Swoffer went out to see the sights, until the temperature hit 98 and he was forced back into the house. Two days later the temperature hit 100 in the shade. By July 1st it was 105.
On July 3rd Swoffer got up, went to the railway station, and booked passage for Boston and Liverpool. Eager, I'm sure for some dependable cold, damp, English fog.
Rock Island Lines is underwritten by the Illinois Humanities Council and Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, with additional funding from Humanities Iowa, the Iowa Arts Council, and Augustana College, Rock Island.
