Leaving Savanna, IL, my plan was to make my way south to warmer weather. Due to my inability to not explode my belongings at every stop, I got a late start hitting the road. Not wanting to be driving too late into the night, something kind of close felt ideal. I remembered Bev mentioning Keokuk as a geode hot spot and suggested I stop. Plugging it into the GPS I see it’s conveniently close, so off I go!
A lot of larger cities out here are no longer seeing the growth that sprung them into existence. It’s been interesting to see the different ways that appears to play out. Often it provides a certain charm and character — making them a mysterious yet alluring time capsule. However some feel very eery, abandoned, or run down. Keokuk is definitely on the latter side.
It is home to the Keokuk Plant, which is a hydroelectric dam, completed in 1913. At the time, it was the largest power plant in the world (in terms of electricity produced). Even by today’s measures, it was extremely impressive. Stretching nearly 5,000 feet across the frozen Mississippi, it’s crazy to think anyone even took the project on.
With the sub-zero wind chill, mostly sketchy buildings downtown, and the majority of the riverbank closed off for industry, there wasn’t much to do the first day. Luckily this hotel has been the best so far — hot tub, (hot) free breakfast, super clean rooms, nice staff — so I wasn’t upset when forced to go back.
The next day I decided to try geode hunting. Most places you have to pay to go on someone’s private land in order to gather them. Not wanting to do that, I found a park in Illinois, across the river, that apparently was decent. While warmer than the previous day, I was still facing sub-zero wind chills. I had to go back and warm up in my car 3 times 😂 Between walking on ice and touching freezing rocks, it was impossible to stay warm.
I found some incredible fossils, fully intact stem, or spine, of something. I’ll have to ask Bev for details. The hillsides would have these places where water was slowly trickling out, fast enough to keep moving overall, but slow enough to produce giant ice sculptures.
I also found a lot of geodes! Mostly small grape to walnut sized ones. A couple bigger ones but unsure about those, I have a feeling they might be only partially formed. At this point I have an embarrassingly large rock collection to be hauling around with me — fossils, crystals, geodes, and just cool looking rocks. Of course it only took, what, 2 weeks to start a collection of some sort?? What is wrong with me 😅 I haven’t been anywhere long enough to spend time cleaning everything up and cracking the geodes, but looking forward to that!
And that concludes my time in Keokuk! Definitely glad I made the stop, it was a fun little excursion plus some needed rest and relaxation.
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