Stand on a hill and look down across Spoon River Valley. Except
for a twisting ribbon of greenery and on an occasional glint of
sun on water, in presence of a stream is noticeable. Small as
rivers go, the Spoon affects an area 65 miles by 45 including
five counties, dozens of towns, and thousands of people. Ask the
farmer who plants corn on its rich bottomland. Minus spring flooding,
he harvests a super crop. Comes a roaring overflow, and he is
in trouble. So is the householder or businessperson in London
Mills who finds his property surrounded by water.
Bridging the Spoon has long posed a problem for engineers. Purists
fight to retain their ancient iron bridges. Practical taxpayers
opt for massive-and-unromantic concrete. On Route 97, south of
Maquon, the piers of two successive bridges are still visible
upstream. Now traffic passes smoothly over a long, sleek expanse
of concrete. Even here, an earthen causeway threatens to surrender
to the pounding waters at times and must be reinforced with crushed
rock. At Bernadotte, the old iron bridge is in place, but for
pedestrians only. Vehicles pass on a modern bridge downstream.
For a really basic bridge, visit Wolf Covered Bridge, southeast
of Knoxville. It is one of only a half-dozen such structures in
Illinois.
Once produce went to market from riverside towns like Waterford,
Babylon, Dahinda, and Ellisville. The first two exist mainly in
memory, the third is a ghost of a town, the fourth sprightly,
but mainly noticed by tourists. Note the names, Duncan Mills and
London Mills. Grain was ground in their mills, the power furnished
by the river. Other mills were at Ellisville, Babylon, Seville,
Bernadotte, Maquon and other small communities along the river's
course.
Long before the arrival of mills and iron bridges, French fur
traders traveled Spoon River's twisting length. Then the English
began exploring. Before either of them, Indian tribes including
the Potowatomi, Fox, and Sauk roamed the area. Prehistoric Woodland
tribes were here first, as well as the Mississippian peoples.
They lived here between 500 A.D. and 1500 A.D. and earlier. A
fine, climate-controlled Illinois State Museum-operated building
interprets relics and remains of these Indians. Called Dickson
Mounds Museum, it is located just off Routes 97 and 78, between
Havana and Lewistown. According to many reports, literally hundreds
of mounds were constructed by native Americans in the vicinity
of the Spoon River. Recently another one was discovered in a park
in the middle of Havana!
Once the little stream was named, "Amaquonsippe," meaning,
"Spoon Water." The Indian word, "amaquon,"
meant a type of shell found on the river's bed and used as a spoon.
Thus the village of Maquon received its name, too.
It was only after 1832 that settlers could come into Illinois
with safety due to the strength of Chief Black Hawk's people.
Finally, after that date, these Indians were forced to cross the
Mississippi. Illinois had become a state in 1819, but the number
of sesquicentennial celebrated in Western Illinois illustrates
how many towns there were in the 1830's, after Black Hawk's defeat.
Those who would explore the entire river must travel to its two
sources. One is in a wooded lot north of Kewanee city park. The
other is found in a corner field southeast of Neponset. The two
branches join near the town of Wyoming, in Stark County. The Army
Corps of Engineers' district map show the stream becoming navigable
as it enters Peoria County and continues south. If the river were
straightened out, reportedly it would stretch 300 miles in length.
Its width in much of its upper reaches is about that of a large
creek. Between heavy rains it is a sluggish stream, moving about
as fast as a person could walk. Actually the width and depth of
its valley indicate a very old history geologically, going back
even farther than the Illinois Glacial Period, which ended some
18,000 years ago. Archaeological knowledge of the area extends
to about 3000 B.C.
In Knox county, many visitors begin their exploration of the Spoon
River at Williamsfield, east entrance to the Knox county scenic
drive. In Fulton County, the Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive,
takes up where Knox County's tour leaves off, near London Mills,
and proceeds on through Fulton County to the river's mouth on
the Illinois River. While these two exciting fall festivals, held
the first two weekends of October, are over for this year, as
self-guided tours the area may be enjoyed year around.
Fulton County's scenery is more rugged along the river, and perhaps
its village is more quaint. Lewistown is its jewel, largely because
it was the boyhood home of Edgar Lee Masters, author of Spoon
River Anthology. He set the story in a mythical town, which he
named Spoon River and the "action" takes place in a
cemetery, closely resembling Oak Hill Cemetery located in Lewistown,
but thinly disguised by the author. So, too, Masters created his
characters from people he knew that were buried in the cemetery,
changing most of their names, at least slightly. As for the river,
he described the Spoon River bottoms as "a place of giant
weeds, huge elms and oaks, tangled vines swamps fed by seep of
the River and lowlands." Flood-prone lowlands for miles before
the Spoon empties into the Illinois at Havana proved that he was
right, though much of the land has been drained for agriculture
during this century.
Lewistown is the county seat of Fulton County, and the story is
that in its early days, when the county was huge, people from
Chicago had to come here to get a marriage license, register deeds,
and conduct other legal business.
At least two other famous people frequented the Spoon River Valley.
One was another author, born and reared in Galesburg, one of the
stops on the Knox County scenic drive which is not on the river
itself. (In fact, as county-wide festivals both of the scenic
drives feature a number of interesting sites and activities in
communities that are not directly on the river.) This author is
Carl Sandburg, poet biographer of Lincoln, and novelist. Lincoln,
himself, is the third and most famous member of this distinguished
trio. He rode horseback or in a buggy to plead cases in Knoxville,
then grand old courthouse building with its massive pillars is
open to the public and includes a museum on the second floor.
How early travelers crossed the river at flood stage is a mystery.
Fording the stream must have been a problem. Big blue stem prairie
grasses were said to grow ten feet tall along river banks. Thus
runoff and flooding were lessened to some extent. Now conservationists
are urging planting more grasses and trees to reduce erosion and
moderate flooding.
We know that Indians followed regular paths across the valley
and out onto the plains. Three main trails crossed near the village
of Maquon. Many Indians lived along the river in the summer to
fish. In winter, they retreated to the shelter of wooded areas
and hunted for their food. However, they also cultivated gardens.
One of the most interesting towns on Spoon River is Bernadotte,
site of the largest prisoner-of-war camps during World War II,
Camp Ellis. The village was bulldozed out of existence, the land
the used for construction of barracks. After the war, the buildings
were either demolished or sold. In fact, some area dwellers moved
them to home sites and turned them into comfortable houses. Bernadotte
grew again. The only dam on the river is at that point on the
stream. A pleasant park beside the river and near the falls produced
by the dam attracts picnickers and fishermen. The park also provides
a picturesque view of the old iron bridge a short distance of
downstream.
Many writers not as well-known as Edgar Lee Masters have written
about Spoon River. Fred Blout, a farmer in the valley, kept a
diary of over 50 years, beginning in 1800. It was published regularly
in the London Mills newspaper. The ongoing story won several state
journalism awards. Local poets, song writers, and storytellers
have also told the story of the languid stream, and its valley
where lives are often as unhurried as the river at their doorstep.
In this land of cornfields, varied scenery along Spoon River and
the legends about it furnish respite from the broad, flat prairie.
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