The Pink Elephant still stands by the river

We’ve got some great river towns here in Iowa, as you already know if you’ve spent much time along the Missouri or the Mississippi. One of my favorites is actually two river towns because they’re so close together on the Great River Road: McGregor and Marquette.

Pinky

They’re close enough to share a website, a hyphen and a chamber of commerce, and close enough that it can be difficult to remember just which one of the two towns has the Pink Elephant (Marquette).

The Pink Elephant has been around here since the early ’60s. She was the symbol of the old Pink Elephant Motel and Supper Club. Yes, pink buildings.

Now Pinky is a mascot of sorts for the Lady Luck Casino. (She must have been quite a sight water skiing on the Mississippi River to entertain Jimmy Carter back in ‘78.)

The old gal came to mind recently during some online research for this little portrait of Clayton County.

I just couldn’t figure out how to fit her in there.