It is touted as an island town, and it is. Sabula is a place that I do not miss on any trip northward. It is not because there are so many things to do there but because of the uniqueness of the town, home to 700 residents. In fact, if you want to eat, a local diner closes at 7 p.m., leaving a bar that juts out over the river as the only alternative, where your choice is frozen pizza.
If you are lucky, some of the locals will be on the patio, which actually hangs about 20 feet over the river, and bar patrons will jump into the slow-moving river, return and do it again.
When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the series of dams that would allow traffic on the river, it carefully protected the town of Sabula, which had been subject to many floods before the enormous project. What resulted was a series of levees, causeways and lakes that protect the 150-year-old town and provide a recreation Mecca.
Front Street runs the entire length of the town, with houses lining the street, facing the ever-changing river and Illinois across it. Between the street and the river is a small band of grass lined with hardwood trees and benches for enjoying the river's mesmerizing flow. At the south end of Front Street, there is a railroad bridge that is still raised to accommodate barge traffic. A tugboat stands by to offer assistance, for it seems that many of the barges get crossways in the small opening that allows passage.
At the south end of the island is a marina with sailboats and powerboats that are impressive in their moorings, and beyond that is a campground on a strip of land that is hardly 100 yards wide. ... there is a sand beach where many play in the bay side waters in the summer.
West of Sabula, across the causeway connecting to the Iowa mainland, is the Jackson County Welcome Center."
