River Sites

The Grant and Mississippi Rivers were key to transportation in earlier times, first by native peoples and later by the French, such as Joliet. Later, European settlers were quick to take advantage of these waterways. The fur traders, the explorers, the miners, the businessmen, all used the rivers. Steamers, keelboats were common. The boats coming up the rivers brought food supplies, clothing, whiskey, sundries, and some luxuries. Even pianos and fancy furniture was brought for some of the more prosperous citizens. When the boats went back down the rivers, they carried pigs of lead.

Along the rivers several settlements sprung up, hoping to become the new hubs of shipping in what then was known as the "Far West". Lafayette, also known as the "Port of Potosi", would later become part of Potosi when the communities of Snake Hollow, Van Buren and Lafayette combined in 1841. Osceola, located near toady's Grant River Recreational Area, was once the base for a ferrying service across the Mississippi. It succumbed though to the success of Potosi, epidemics such as cholera, and the mass exodus of miners headed towards the promise of gold in California.