PORT OF ENTRY

PORT OF ENTRY. A port of entry is any place where customs officials are stationed to check people and foreign goods entering a country. Being a port of entry has traditionally offered business advantages. During the 1840s, Dubuque was the only urban center in the valley of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER to successfully improve navigation for steamboats. To encourage business, the city council spent nearly $4,000 excavating a channel between the outer and inner sloughs of the riverfront. Gradually the sloughs were filled up and streets were extended to the outer rim of islands. Levees and steamboat landing areas were constructed on the islands surrounding the main channel.

The improvement in navigation had a dramatic impact on business. In 1847 a total of 218 steamboats arrived in Dubuque. A decade later the city saw 908 steamboats dock. Customs on imported goods were collected at the DUBUQUE CUSTOM HOUSE AND POST OFFICE.

On February 11, 1889 the first carload of imported goods arrived in Dubuque directly from New York City. As the newspaper article indicated, shipping in this manner eliminated the cost of custom house brokerage and hauling to and from the appraiser's store and storage--a process that could add between thirty-five to forty days on a delivery.

The goods arrived in Dubuque twenty-two days after shipment. The cargo in New York was sealed in locked cars. Locks showed certain letters and numbers. This information was sent by mail to the point of destination. If other letters or numbers appeared on the lock, it was considered that the lock had been tampered with in transit. This was punishable by a $1,000 fine and five years in prison or both. (1)

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Source:

"Imported Goods," Dubuque Sunday Herald, February 12, 1889, p. 4