One fine, autumn day we went on a drive enjoying the country landscapes and ended up in Wisconsin. We stopped at the Nelson Creamery for lunch, and then headed to Alma and a small county park there, with an expansive overlook of the Mississippi River. The sun was out, the sky was blue and trees were an array of beautiful fall colors.
While entering Alma a barge was approaching Lock and Dam #4. We decided to park the car and walk to the observation platform to watch the interesting process of moving a barge through the lock.
It was process. This particular barge, technically called a 9-pack barge because each unit is called a barge and when tied together they are identified as packs. A 9-pack barge is three barges wide and three barges deep. For simplicity in this blog I am using the term “barge” to identify the entire barge pack.
The tugboat would not fit in the lock at the same time as the barge so the barge went through first, after disengaging from the tugboat. Once it passed through it was secured to shore while the tugboat went through the lock. The two were reconnected – the barge and the tugboat – and it continued on it’s way again, down the mighty Mississippi River, to the next lock and dam.
It was interesting process to watch and it took over an hour. And this is just… one barge… on one section… of one river. This process is repeated several times a day for many months of the year.
In the meantime a train came rumbling through town on the railroad tracks and there we were, between the train and the river barge. It seemed like a lot of activity in this small Wisconsin town of 791 people.
It’s interesting to stop and think of all the ways commodities are transported in this country…quickly or slowly…by boats, trains, trucks…mostly unnoticed… and the availability of goods taken for granted.
