DUBUQUE, Iowa — November 11, 2026 — If you have been meaning to ride the Fenelon Place Elevator this year, the clock is running. The little cable car that climbs the bluff from Fourth Street closes for the season on November 30, and it will not run again until April 1.

It is a short ride — about three minutes — but it is the one Dubuque is known for around the world. The elevator bills itself as the world’s shortest and steepest scenic railway: just 296 feet of track, lifting riders 189 feet up the bluff from downtown to Fenelon Place, where the view takes in the business district, the Mississippi River, and three states.

The elevator started as one man’s shortcut to lunch. In 1882, banker J.K. Graves lived on top of the bluff and worked downtown. Dubuque’s businesses shut down for an hour and a half at noon, and the round trip home by horse and buggy ate up an hour of it, leaving him barely half an hour to eat and rest. Graves had seen incline railways on his travels in Europe, so he asked the city for permission to build one of his own. The city granted it on June 5, 1882, and his private cable car made its first run on July 25, 1882.

He opened it to the public in 1884, charging five cents a ride. But the early elevator was unlucky with fire: it burned in July 1884 and again in 1893. After the second fire, Graves could not afford to rebuild, so his neighbors bought him out and formed the Fenelon Place Elevator Company to keep it running themselves. The current system was rebuilt in 1977, and its motor was upgraded from DC to AC power in 2015. The elevator was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 4, 1978.

It is still a family operation. KCRG reported in September that Amy and Steve Schadle, the fifth generation of the family to run it, now operate the elevator, carrying on a tradition that has lasted more than 140 years.

The ride costs $4 round trip, or $2 each way, and it is cash only — the elevator does not accept debit or credit cards, and you pay at the top. It runs daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and is closed on Thanksgiving. For GPS, use Fourth and Bluff streets for the lower station; the upper station is at 512 Fenelon Place. Parking at the top is street parking on narrow streets, so the lower station is the easier place to start.

The elevator is one of the few Dubuque attractions that is truly seasonal, and November is the last chance to catch it before the long winter pause. After November 30, the cars sit still until spring.