George Woodruff spent 1871 like a true old-time river rat. He traveled up and down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers that year, hunting deer, gathering nuts, trapping muskrats for their fur, and cutting wood for steamboats. He camped on the riverbank whenever it was convenient, had no boss, punched no time clock. He probably never even looked at a clock. At some point in his travels that year he married.
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Eventually Woodruff decided to get respectable. He quit his wandering and towed his houseboat ashore near Peoria. He added on to it, making it all house and no boat. He and his family ended up owning several gas stations, and he and his wife lived long enough to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary in 1946.
The exhibit is partly based on a series of oral-history interviews conducted by a team of museum researchers. Craig Colten, associate curator of geography for the museum, calls the project “an intellectual bridge between the prehistory of the river and the modern history of the river. We chose the period when environmental change was the greatest. The main activities here are river trades: commercial hunting for ducks and geese, mussel gathering–the shells were used to make buttons–and commercial fishing. We looked at the folk traditions of those collecting activities.”
From next Tuesday, September 5, though Sunday, September 10, the Belle Reynolds will be docked at Will-Joliet Bicentennial Park, 201 W. Jefferson in Joliet. There will be a slew of related events on the boat and ashore: they include craft demonstrations, folk-music concerts, story telling, a lecture, and several other exhibits. For a full schedule, call the park office at 815-740-2298. The Belle Reynolds will be open for viewing from 12 to 6 Tuesday, 9 to 5 Wednesday and Thursday, 11:30 to 7:30 Friday and Saturday, and 11:30 to 5:30 Sunday. Admission is free.
