The Foundry House at Devil's Backbone

Unfortunately for some, when you search for 'Devil's backbone, grand tower, IL' all you really come up with is haunted ghost stories.  But you know, the Foundry House is much more than that, and honestly, despite being what most would call a 'sensitive,' I sure didn't see'feel'hear anything out of the ordinary at the site of the former home.  Except awe, that is.

We rode the Harley's down to Grand Tower on a particularly beautiful early fall day, just to find the Foundry House.  Devil's Backbone state park is easy to find, and it's actually really big and nice.  We parked in a big playground right next tot he river for a while, and walked around a bit.  While the park was easy to find, nothing I could find said where the foundry house or iron furnaces were, so we had to glean that information on our own.  We ended up asking a very knowledgeable camper.  From the park, the Bake Ovens are to the left, and the Foundry House to the right.

Grand Tower, at one time, was a booming river city (then call Evan's landing), boasting visits from such notable figures as Mark Twain and Ulysses S Grant.  It's hard to know who all came through the town, as most records of visitors and residents have been lost in fires and multiple floods.  We do know, however, that the Mississippi and the Bake Ovens were booming business.  In the 1800s the iron foundry was built on the side of the Devil's Backbone, and the superintendent of the foundry was built high atop a rocky outcrop nearby.  The house had to have once been quite majestic, with an almost 360 degree view of the river.  Few pictures exist anymore, unfortunately, and the one that does has been widely circulated.

We did not seek out the furnaces, as we've seen many before in the Garden of the Gods area.  What we came to see where the remains of the Foundry House.  From the park there is a narrow access road running to a small beach, the pipeline, than back into town.  The Foundry House is right on top of the hill the pipeline rests on.  You can't miss it, really.

So here's the legend that you will get on every other site you pull up about Grand Tower.  After the foundry was built, the superintendent built his home practically right on top of the outcropping called Devil's Backbone (which used to be a much longer, larger outcropping, but was largely blown away to make for better river traffic, as well as stone to be used for various endeavors.)  It was a huge two story house, clearly more than was needed for himself and daughter Esmerelda, but hey, if you have that kind of money, why not, right?  Word has it they came up the Mississippi by way of steamboat after Esmerelda's mother died, although without records, this whole tale could be made up, I have no idea.

Anyhow, Esmerelda falls in love with the pilot of a riverboat called the 'Spectre' (again, how do we know this? We don't.)  Her father, however, has chosen a well-to-do older gentleman as her betrothed, and forbids her to see said pilot.  She stays locked in her room, refusing to see anyone, despite the family having quite the social life beforehand.  She'd stay in her room for days, watching for the Spectre to travel up or down the river.  When a length of time had passed and she failed to see the ship, Esmerelda inquired to it's whereabouts, finding that it had been destroyed in a boiler fire, along with most of it's crew- including the pilot.  The young lady lost all desire to live, and on a stormy night not long after her room was found deserted.  Her broken body was found along the riverbanks the next morning.  

Many people claim to see or hear her at the foundry house ruins.  We saw no such thing.  The walls of the home, however, are quite visible, and we spent some time hiking around the top of the cliff. 

The backbone is overgrown, and while there is a path climbing up to the foundation, there really aren't any to speak of atop the rock, but it's small and you can forge your own path.  It's pretty dense with thorns in a few places though, though keep watch where you step.

How to get there:

It's not hard to find the backbone, follow rt 3 into grand tower, and there is a sign saying 'Devils Backbone Park' or you can go into town and follow signs to the park. Either way it's the same place, just two entrances.  The park road is where you will come in, and it goes straight into the park and also splits off to the right on a small one lane.  Follow the lane past the RV campground and around a curve to the beach.  There it will turn to rock and go up a big hill, and right on top of the hill is the access below the pipeline to the backbone/foundry house.  You can follow the same road straight out to 20th street and 3rd ave back to rt3 when you leave. :)