Hoppie’s Marina

Hoppie’s Marina on the Mississippi at Kimmswick has been a popular stop for river boaters for several decades. The way we hear it Hoppie can fix about anything and he and his wife Fern are great hosts for many travelers. People from around the world have traveled the Mississippi River by boat and often visit Historic Kimmswick for lunch, dinner, shopping and touring. The marina is a short walk from the shopping district.
Many of those boaters are on the adventure of a life time as they cruise the great loop which is the circumnavigation of eastern North America by water, a distance of over 5,000 miles. The great loop as a continuous waterway includes the Atlantic Ocean, Great Lakes, the Gulf Intracostal Waterways, Canadian Heritage Canals, and the inland rivers of the Midwest.
The Mississippi River

The Upper Mississippi River flows roughly 1,300 miles, from Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota to the confluence with the Ohio River at the southern tip of Illinois, over half of the length of the entire Mississippi River. About 850 miles of the river, extending from Minneapolis-St. Paul to the Ohio River, is commercially navigable. On the northern 670 miles, this is made possible by a series of 29 locks and dams, most built in the 1930s. In addition, the river is dredged to maintain a minimum main channel depth of 9 feet. The Illinois River connects the Mississippi River to the Great Lakes. Together, the Upper Mississippi River; Illinois River; and small portions of the Minnesota, St. Croix, Black, and Kaskaskia Rivers provide a 1200-mile commercially navigable river network in the upper Midwest.

Recreational visits to the Upper Mississippi River region exceeded 11 million trips in 2000, There are 3 national refuges along the Upper Mississippi River, totaling over 285,000 acres. They include the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge, and Mark Twain National Wildlife Refuge. The states manage another 140,000 acres of refuge lands along the river.

The river supports more than 127 species of fish and 30 species of freshwater mussels. Nearly 300 species of birds migrate through the river valley in spring and fall. The Mississippi Flyway is used by more than 40 percent of the migratory waterfowl traversing the United States.

There are approximately 500 boat access points and marinas along the Upper Mississippi River between the headwaters in Minnesota and the confluence with the Ohio River in southern Illinois.

Source: The Upper Mississippi River Basin Association (UMRBA)

A U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Mississippi River training Project is endangering Hoppie’s Marina. To read more click here.