Metropolis: More Than Superman

My wife and I stopped by this town on the way to St. Louis. We found a wonderful historic site in Fort Massac State Park, a nice entertainment center at the riverboat casino, and a growing city. There was even a 15 foot high statue of the comic book hero in the downtown area.

Although we had only one afternoon and evening, there were plenty of activities for a week if you planned ahead of time. There were a lot of boats around the town. This is between the areas where the Cumberland River and the Tennessee River flow into the Ohio River, then the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River. The river is almost one mile wide at this point. We enjoyed the short break in our trip, and plan to go back when there is more time.

Quick Tips:

For those who enjoy camping, there are nice camp grounds in Forth Massac State Park. We saw a lot of people who brought their boats to ride around on the Ohio River. Also, we were told that there is some good fishing for large catfish. Whether you want a quick stop at the park, a night out at the casino, or fishing on the Ohio River, Metropolis seems to be a great place.

Best Way To Get Around:

My wife and I drove to this city. It is located across the Ohio River from Paducah, Kentucky, to the west of Interstate 24. A one mile drive from the first Illinois exit off of the Interstate will bring you to the city. I did not notice any taxis or buses, so the best way that we found to travel was by car. There are a few short paths walking by the river, but most people drive to their destinations.

One of the conveniences that my wife and I have is a Priority Club card from Holiday Inn. This allows us to earn points for our stays in any of the Holiday Inn chain of hotels. We can use these points for free nights at hotels or exchange them for air miles. So, we stay at Holiday Inn or Express whenever we have short visits into an area. On this trip, we spent one night at the Holiday Inn Express in Metropolis. This hotel is relatively new. It is located at the exit from Interstate 24 at exit 37 in Illinois. This is the first (or last) exit in Illinois from Kentucky. It is about one mile from the bridge that goes across the Ohio River.

My wife and I did not spend much time in this hotel, since we were busy with activities. In fact, we spent just the time for sleeping. The rest of the time we were at the fort, the museum, or at the casino. I noticed that there was a nice pool available. The people were friendly. And most of all, the bed was comfortable. For a low price, this certainly was convenient.

As we travelled toward our eventual goal of St. Louis, my wife and I encountered Fort Massac State Park, in Illinois. This was off of the first exit from Interstate 24 as we entered the state. We drove into a well-maintained area. There, we passed by picnic areas, a camp ground, and some rustic areas before finding the site of the old fort. We looked at the museum, watched a short video of the history of the area, and toured the recreation of the fort.

Native Americans used this site as a strategic area overlooking the Ohio River. In 1540, Hernan de Soto and his men built a primitive fort on the location. Spain eventually ceded the land to the French, the French built a more sturdy structure at the location in 1757. The French abandoned the fort in 1763 after the French and Indian War. It was burned by a group of Chickasaws. The British finally took posession of the area and rebuilt the fort on the same location. However, in 1778, Colonel George Rogers Clark took possession of the Illinois Territory, including this fort.

In 1794, President Washington ordered the fort rebuilt, and it protected the interests of the United States in the Ohio Valley. After the New Madrid earthquake in 1811-1812, the fort was in disrepair, and the local citizens used the timber for building material and for firewood. Eventually, in 1903, the Daughters of the American Revolution became interested in the historical interests of the site and convinced the state of Illinois to purchase the site and the nearby land. It became the first state park in Illinois.

My wife and I enjoyed the short (0.5 mile hiking trail and the longer (2.5 mile) Hickory Ridge Nut Trail that runs along the banks of the Ohio River. Almost all of the 50 camping spaces were taken when we visited. We also saw two large groups of people having family picnics. There was a boat ramp available on the river. The park ranger informed us that people fish for bullhead, carp, catfish, crappie, drum and largemouth bass. Some of the catfish that we saw brought in were over 10 pounds in size.

As a historical site, this was a great find for us. We were shown evidence of four distict cultures that had inhabited the spot. The people were friendly. The river view from the top of the bluffs was beautiful. In all, a great time was had.

Deciding to spend the evening in Metropolis was a great idea on our last trip through the area. My wife and I wanted to do something a bit different, so we boarded The North Star (a riverboat that was built for the burgeoning river gambling industry in the Midwest) and tried our luck at the tables and the machines. The parking lot had a $5.00 fee, which didn't set well with my wife, but it was within reason for an attraction of this sort. We noticed a nice (new) hotel adjacent to the boat that is owned by the Harrah's group. It seemed too fancy and expensive for my tastes, but I could be wrong. I decided to not press my luck on that one.

When we boarded, we noticed that there were three decks (they call them floors) dedicated to gaming. The bottom deck had only slot machines, but the two upper decks had tables for cards and other games. I tried a few tosses of the di and two hands of blackjack, then went to the slot machines. I am not a heavy gambler, nor is my wife, so we didn't want to spend all of our money on this boat. We saw about 1500 or so people onboard that evening... all enjoying themselves. As is typical, there were attendants serving drinks for the customers. We did take advantage of that opportunity.

Three restaurants provided chances for meals, one with a buffet, one with fast food, and one served as a steak house. The food was actually pretty good, although I believe that most of the customers came here to try their luck.

One evening was enough for us. The event was well worth our time, but it was not the way that I wanted to spend my limited budget on this trip. Perhaps when I plan on spending more time and money I can return. It certainly was pleasant for the short time that we spent.

A trip to Metropolis, the home of Superman, is never complete without a visit to see the superhero. So, my wife and I went downtown to visit Superman Square and see the 15-foot high statue of Superman and visit the Super Museum. We entered the museum and immediately were impressed with the ‘super’ amount of memorabilia. Not only was this a museum, but most of the items were available for sale to other collectors. There were numerous posters, life-sized statues and images of superman and supergirl, Tee-shirts, sweat-shirts, DC comics (many of them were collectors editions), even a seven-foot high replica (for about $3500). There were photos and posters of every actor who had portrayed this superhero. They even had the original costume worn by George Reaves in the 1950’s TV series of Superman.

If you can think of any item that featured Superman, it is available at this museum. And why not? Isn’t this his home city? Anna and I certainly enjoyed walking through this shop/museum for about one hour. It reminded me of my years growing up. Be certain to stop in and say hello to the owner, as we did. Then take a trip down the street to the Planet, the daily newspaper (of course).

My friend, George, and I decided to try our luck fishing on the Ohio River. I wanted to modify a technique that my father used successfully back in the 1960's, so we tried our luck at jug fishing.

First, we set up a tent at Fort Massac State Park in the campground. We used George's boat and set out about 100 32-ounce bottles (jugs) with lines and hooks attached to them. On the hooks we used cut calve's liver as bait. We would toss these jugs into the river in a random manner and wait for a fish to strike. In fact, we set the jugs out at about 3:00 in the afternoon and returned to camp. At 6:00, we went out in the boat, again, to check our jugs and our bait. It took about one hour to check each of the jugs, but we had already caught 8 fish (ranging in size from one pound to five pounds). Night was nearing, so we decided to call it quits and wait until the following morning. We arose about 5:30 and prepared to go back out on the river. This time, we were bringing in our lines and our catch. We had an additional 23 fish on the lines. Not bad for one night's work.

We returned to camp, cleaned the fish, and packed our gear. Then we divided our catch and headed home. Those fish certainly made a great meal for our family and friends later in the week. Just as I remembered, the Ohio has an abundance of great fish.