January-February 2004

Ike Hastings: In the Wake of the Lilly Belle

Reading a Winter's Trail: Tracks in the Snow

Renegade Renovator in Prairie du Chien: Blair Dillman Does it His Way

Grand Excursion Preview: Red Wing to Hastings, Minn.

March-April 2004

Secrets to Photographing Frogs at Night

Following in the Footsteps of Lewis & Clark

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa

Grand Excursion Preview: Pine Bend to St. Paul

May-June 2004

Summer Travel Issue
Featuring the Grand Excursion

Summer Festivals

Prize-winning Upper Miss Refuge Photos

Cool River Museums

Highest Overlooks on the Upper Mississippi

July-August 2004

Restaurant review: Nicollet Island Inn

Babe Schubert, River Guide

Battle with reed canarygrass

Here Come the Mayflies

Escape to the Swamp

Lock and Dam Expansion: Marketing and politicking

September-October 2004

Party on the River — Grand Excursion Photo Album

Raptor Festival — Surfing the Thermals
Usually people visit the Effigy Mounds National Monument to look down at the Indian mounds and the river, but they come in late September to look up at the hawks.

Shell Game: Studying the State of Turtles in Pool 5
Scientists don’t know much about turtles on the river, but they’re learning more, thanks to volunteers.

Saturday Night at Spring Lake Inn
Stop for delicious shrimp at this lively Wisconsin roadhouse in Prairie du Chien.

Currents — On the Main Channel, A World Apart
You could drive right by this fine restaurant in Alma, Wis., but the excellent food is worth the visit.

Stop Carping and Start Cooking
Carp Recipes! Many anglers view carp as a problem, but it might be a problem we can eat our way out of.

November-December 2004

Annual Book and Gift Issue

Cover art by Julia Crozier

A Troubled Legacy
A determined citizen’s group is fighting a golf course-hotel-waterpark development near McGregor, Iowa.

Great River Reads
Mysteries and histories, travelogues and art catalogs.

Gifts for River Lovers
Fan-carved birds, fine wines, apples, a night on a dredge, a river journey DVD.

Island City Cafe in Sabula, Iowa
They open at 5 a.m. If you want coffee earlier, you have to go get the keys and make it yourself.

Captain Harris’ Eagle
How a 320-pound wooden eagle found a roost as the pride of Davenport’s Putnam Museum.