Columbus, Ohio
Though other Ohio cities like Cincinnati grew next to rivers to take advantage of the water transit routes, Columbus has had a very different relationship with its shoreline.
“Even though we have two rivers, we were pretty much landlocked,” said Marceline Dyer, tourism sales manager. “Franklinton was the original settlement on the river, but it flooded over. When Columbus was selected to be the capital, it was planned on the high side and a bit away from the river to avoid flooding.”
Over the city’s history, Columbians constructed several dams and levies to control flooding in Franklinton and water access to Columbus, but many were not healthy for the river; so the city is now in the midst of a $35.5 million project to change the damming system, make the river run deeper and cleaner and create 33 new acres of riverfront greenway. Bicentennial Park, the first phase of the project, is already open and hosting free public performances, but the project will wrap up later this fall.
The riverfront Center of Science and Industry, primarily a science museum but that also celebrates the history of innovation in Columbus, offers step-on guide tours for groups of the riverfront that discuss how the two rivers that go through the city affected the development. Groups can stop for lunch at the Boat House, just outside the park area overlooking the confluence of the Olentangy and Scioto rivers, where they can take in the local wildlife, including a fragile population of birds protected by the local Grange Insurance Audubon Center.
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria’s riverfront is quickly becoming the city’s cultural center thanks to the arrival of new attractions like the Peoria Riverfront Museum. But more than 150 years ago, it served as the transportation hub for one of the world’s major whiskey-producing areas.
“What a lot of people don’t know and are really surprised about is that we used to be the whiskey capital of the world,” said Kaci Osbourne, tourism manager for the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Because of our proximity to the river, there was fresh water, and it was easy to throw the finished whiskey on a barge and ship it down the river.”
Before the business slowed during Prohibition, whiskey barons built grandiose mansions throughout Peoria that groups can now tour, along with former distilleries, on the Peoria Historical Society Roll Out the Barrel trolley tour. Thanks to the increasing interest in craft distilleries and American whiskey, some local distilleries have started up again, including J.K. Williams, run by descendants of one of the most well-known whiskey barons, using his original recipe.
The Peoria Riverfront Museum, which will feature an exhibit on Peoria’s whiskey history starting in February 2016, guides visitors through the history of how the Illinois River has shaped the community and puts a new stamp on the riverfront landscape with a sculpture garden.
Minneapolis
Although Minneapolis does sit on the mighty Mississippi, it was originally settled because of two geographical factors that make it one of the most unusual points along the river: the fact that it is a major point of confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, and because of the powerful St. Anthony Falls.
The rivers provided trade routes, but St. Anthony Falls provided a steady, high-powered jolt to local industry, turning Minneapolis first into a major saw-milling town and then into the country’s foremost flour-milling area. At the height of Minneapolis’ milling prowess, Cadwallader Washburn, who would later go on to form General Mills, constructed the largest flour mill in the world along the riverfront.
However, soon after it opened, an explosion destroyed the Washburn mill as well as several others in the vicinity and left the waterfront a ruin until the 1990s, when the city turned the ruins into a museum dedicated to the city’s history, particularly the milling industry. Today, the Mill City Museum allows visitors to get a look into the workings of a Minneapolis mill and to take in an aerial view of the falls and river junction from the ninth-floor observation deck.
Just next door, groups can experience an aerial view of the riverfront from a completely different angle at the Guthrie Theater, which has a 178-foot cantilevered observation deck extending out over the riverfront parks designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel. While the bridge is open to the public, groups can also arrange an architecture tour with the theater, take in a show from the groundbreaking company and eat in the James Beard Award-winning restaurant on-site during their visit.
