Paducah Kentucky

trade transportation arts and culture

Paducah is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, between St Louis and Nashville. The city is the hub of a micropolitan area comprising Kentucky and Illinois counties. First settled in 1821 and laid out by William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it was named Padoucas, the word for Comanche from a Spanish transliteration.

Trade and Transportation

A River and Rail Economy was the key to Paducah’s development as a port, a red brick making factory, a foundry for making rail and locomotive components and dry dock facilities for steamboats and towboats comprised the town infrastructure. Thanks to its proximity to coal fields, Paducah was the home port for barge companies and an important railway hub connecting Chicago with the Gulf of Mexico.

The Paducah-McCraken County River Port Authority provides maritime services for the rural regions of Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri, and Northwestern Tennessee. It specializes in bulk, agricultural and containerized cargoes. The agency specializes in bulk, agricultural, general and containerized cargoes, and operates a Foreign Trade Zone in the only Marine Highway Designation on the Ohio River and the only Marine Highway port on the river that is designated for container service.

Arts and Culture

The National Quilt Museum is a cultural destination that attracts quilters and art enthusiasts to the Paducah area. The museum features professional quilt and fiber art exhibits that are rotated throughout the year and is the largest single tourist attraction in the city.

Paducah is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network

The Paducah Wall to Wall program was begun by mural artists on the downtown flood wall in 1996; over 50 murals address subjects ranging from Native American history, river barges, steamboats and local African-American heritage.

The Columbia River

American River Trails

The Columbia is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest and fourth largest by volume in the United States. Rising in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, it flows for 1,243 miles - 2,000 km - before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. Its watershed extends into seven US states and a Canadian province. The river's heavy flow and relatively steep gives it tremendous potential for the generation of electricity. 

14 Hydroelectric Dams produce more than 44 percent of total U.S. Hydroelectric Power

 

Culture the river and its tributaries have been central to the region's culture and economy for thousands of years. The river system hosts many species of fish, which migrate between fresh water habitats and the saline waters of the Pacific Ocean. Salmon provides the core subsistence for native peoples.

Transportation in past centuries, indigenous peoples traveled across western North America to the Columbia to trade for fish and overland explorers entered the Willamette Valley through the scenic Columbia River Gorge and pioneers began to settle the valley in increasing numbers. Steamboats along the river linked communities and facilitated trade; the arrival of railroads in the late 19^th century, many running along the river, supplemented these links.

Navigation locks were built to aid ship and barge service along the lower Columbia and its tributaries; dredging has opened, maintained, and enlarged ship channels. Since the early 20^th century, dams have been built across the river for the power generation, navigation, irrigation and flood control. 

Planning Your Trip assumes uniquely local dimensions in the places you visit, rooted in the local economy, history and traditions. TEMA develops personalized itineraries based on your preferences; we leverage an in-depth knowledge of your destinations with superior client service throughout your trip.

Your anchor locations when visiting the Columbia River: Portland Oregon and Seattle

Native Americans have inhabited the Columbia's watershed for more than 15,000 years, with a transition to a sedentary lifestyle based mainly on salmon starting about 3,500 years ago. In 1996 the skeletal remains of the 9,000-year-old prehistoric Kennewick man. Oral histories describe the formation and destruction of a land bridge that connected the Oregon and Washington sides of the river in the Columbia River Gorge. The bridge aligns with geological records of the Bonneville Slide. Stories about the bridge differ in their details but agree in general that the bridge permitted increased interaction between tribes on the north and south sides of the river.

European and American ships explored the coastal area around the mouth of the Columbia in the late 18^th century, trading with local natives. Lewis and Clark entered Oregon country between 1805 and 1807, encountering numerous small native settlements. From the earliest contact with westerners, the natives were not tribal, but instead congregated in social units no larger than a village, and more often at a family level. 

Captain Gray was the First Explorer to enter the River; he named it after his Ship Colombia Rediviva

Irrigation many farmers in central Washington build dams on their property for irrigation and to control frost on their crops. Six such dams have failed in recent years, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to crops and public roads. Fourteen farms in the area have gone through the permitting process to build such dams legally.

The Columbia Colorado and Mississippi Watersheds meet at Three Waters Mountain in Wyoming

Tributaries the Columbia receives more than 60 tributaries; the four largest are the Snake River, the Willamette River, the Kootenay River and the Pend Oreille River.

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Alton Illinois

Architectural Historic and River Trails

Alton is located 25 Miles north of St. Louis amid the confluence of three navigable rivers, the Mississippi, the Illinois and the Missouri, as a river trading and industrial town whose waterfront features concrete grain silos and railroad tracks for the shipping of grains and produce. Once the site of several brick factories, Alton’s streets are paved in brick along with many commercial buildings located downtown. The Great Rivers Region is accessible from six interstates, an international airport and an Amtrak station.

Historic Trails Alton’s Civil War and Lincoln Legacy Trail features costumed docents at sites throughout the city revealing Alton’s legacy through personal tales along with the Underground Railroad, where runaway slaves were hidden in caves, barns and basements. The Alton Museum of History and Art has special exhibits relating to Alton’s connection to the Civil War era. 

The Legendary Piasa Bird Painted on the Bluffs above the Mississippi River

Industrial Museums learn refinery operations and how products such as gasoline, jet fuel, propane and asphalt are made at the Phillips 66 Wood River Refinery and Museum. The Mississippi Mud Pottery features artists as they demonstrate the molding of their unique pottery. At the National Great Rivers Museum and Melvin Price Locks & Dam feature the importance of the river system to America’s economy.

River Trails where great rivers converge with great moments in history at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Confluence Tower; learn how they planned their journey west.

Hartford is at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and point of departure for Lewis and Clark.
Elsah continuing up the Great River Road and marvel at the numerous buildings that still exist. Most of the houses and building in the village were built in the mid- to late 1800s

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The Entire Village of Elsah is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Grafton’s riverfront was packed with manufacturing companies, mills, quarries, loading docks, and riverboat traffic in the 1800s. Today, it is a tourist destination with its specialty shops and wineries.

Architecture Trails many blocks of housing in Alton were built in the Victorian Queen Anne style during the prosperous period in the river city's history at the top of the hill in the commercial area, several stone churches and city hall.

The Middletown Historic District was the center of wealth in the early days of Alton with homes reflecting the wealth of families and their descendants that led Alton society for more than a century. Brick sidewalks connect a park with a Victorian playhouse and an area called Insuranceville.

Upper Alton Historic District a cultural and educational center, Upper Alton was once a separate town anchored by a former military academy and the oldest continuously used educational buildings in Illinois.