Great River Road at Warsaw

Long before it was a town, this stretch of the Mississippi was homeland to the peoples of the Illinois Confederacy, and to the Sauk and Meskwaki, who lived and traveled along the river and its tributaries. The great water was a highway and a source of life, and the confluence country to the north, where the Des Moines River meets the Mississippi, held gathering places and villages of long standing. The Sauk and Meskwaki are today centered at the Sac and Fox Nation and the Meskwaki Settlement.

By the early 1800s a military post named Fort Edwards rose on the bluff here, and a town grew up around the landing. Warsaw became a busy steamboat port in the middle of the nineteenth century, shipping grain and goods and receiving travelers headed up and down the river and inland. The nearby stretch of the Mississippi held rapids that made navigation tricky, which gave river towns like this one work as points where cargo and passengers were handled around the rough water. When the railroads and later the highways pulled traffic away from the river, Warsaw settled into the quieter town you find today, its old buildings a record of the busier years.

The Great River Road is one of the country's oldest and longest scenic byways, a coordinated route across ten states that follows the Mississippi from its headwaters to the sea. It is marked by a distinctive green-and-white pilot's-wheel sign, and drivers piece together a journey from the smaller roads that hug the river. The Illinois portion is a highlight, running the length of the state's western edge past bluffs, wetlands, small ports, and wide river vistas.

Around Warsaw the road delivers the classic Upper Mississippi experience: limestone bluffs on the Illinois side, broad bottomland and backwater on the far shore, and the great brown river sliding between. It is a route made for wandering, with river overlooks, old river towns, and locks and dams that reveal how the modern river is managed for barge traffic. Warsaw sits near the meeting of the Mississippi and the Des Moines, a natural pause on a slow drive along the water.

The Mississippi here is a working river and a wild one at once. Long strings of barges move grain, coal, and other cargo up and down the channel, guided through the system of locks and dams built to keep the river navigable. Watching a tow ease past the town, low and heavy in the water, is one of the simple pleasures of a river-town visit.

The river is also a great corridor for wildlife. In the colder months bald eagles gather near the open water below the locks, perching in the tall shoreline trees and diving for fish stunned by the current. American white pelicans pass through on migration in big, wheeling flocks, and herons, egrets, and waterfowl work the backwaters. Binoculars and a patient eye from the bluff or a riverside pullout turn an ordinary afternoon into a wildlife show.

Winter is prime eagle season on the Upper Mississippi. As northern waters freeze, eagles concentrate near the open water below dams and locks, and a cold, clear day can put dozens of birds in view. The bare bluffs and quiet town have a stark beauty in this season.

Spring brings high water and the return of migrating birds, including the great flocks of pelicans and waves of waterfowl moving up the flyway. Summer is warm and green, good for a slow river drive with the windows down and the water glinting below. Fall may be the finest season of all, with the bluff timber turning color, cooler air over the water, and the first eagles beginning to arrive as the north freezes up.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.