Hennepin's Big Bend Marina

Very helpful with docking and providing information. Great staff and location1

This is a small “old school” marina, family owned and super friendly and responsive. They assisted with every detail from approach guidance to docking to fueling to providing recommendations for next stops. There is a large laundromat directly adjacent and a small grocery store (we didn’t go in). Our five boat looper group enjoyed drinks, dinner and bingo at the pub next door. Good water all the way in, but call for final approach instructions due to the deadhead mentioned by others.

The marina is run by the finest family on the loop! Fran, Jacob and David are all incredible! We can’t thank them enough for a wonderful two day stop, from greeting to tie up, to use of golf cart. Everything was fantastic, thank you again for making great memories on “the loop”!

We had a peaceful stay here. Fran and her team are very responsive and they guided us into the marina and helped us dock. There is a shallow area nearby and a deadhead so make sure to heed their help. We only stayed one night but wished we had stayed more to enjoy the small town. Although I didn’t use it, there is a laundromat nearby. Marina bathroom is very clean. Secure area. Definitely worth a stay. We wish them the best as they have plans to expand.

Awesome staff. Docks are a work in progress. Walkable grocery store and restaurant. Easy in and out as long as you avoid the shallow spot and dead head. Staff directed us in perfectly!

Great service , very helpful docking. Restrooms are very very clean !

Fran and Jake (son) couldn't have been more welcoming! We enjoyed our short stay, and recommend their marina highly.

Great little stop! Fran and family so helpful. Bath house is new!

Super friendly and helpful. We'll be back next year. "Just Sayin'"

Great small marina. It is shielded from wakes by a small island so we didn’t experience much rolling. Up the hill is a grocery store, bar and marine store which caters to fishing boats. Two blocks away is a restaurant with good food and prices. The marina staff is small but very friendly and responsive.

Warm staff. Hard working. Solid electric, good communication. Small town.

Fran is great and will work with you to accommodate you. Not much around this spot but deep water if you need it and fuel, water and pump out at a reasonable price.

Convenient, easy approach, good depth and floating dock. All amenities available including good fuel price and a well stocked market within short walking distance. We called ahead and received detailed directions and were met by Fran to receive our lines. Nice folks... glad we stopped here on our way south, in fact, extended to a second day to take advantage of a nice bike trail and bird refuge to stretch our legs.

Along the rivers, there are few places to stop for the night. Though it’s a long way from a classy marina, it provides the necessities: solid tie up, electricity, and water. The bathroom, located three stories up the hill adjacent to the marina, is surprisingly nice. The owner, Fran, and her son, a former Marine Corps officer, are as nice and helpful as can be. Within easy walking distance, there’s a very well stocked grocery store that includes a hardware store and a plumbing section. You could easily provisions the boat here. The only drawback is, she has room for just three looper class boats.

Great location. Great hospitality!

Owners are very nice and accommodating. Brand new bathrooms and groceries across the street.

Our stay at Big Bend Hennepin’s Marina was perfectly fine. Plenty of water and Jake and folks were welcoming and very very helpful. Quiet and safe, the town had a well stocked grocery store ( we visited) and restaurants we did not eat as they were closed the day we visited. Fuel is available. Note: the photo on the Dockwa page of the marina is not accurate, caused a little confusion at first but staff communicated well and brought us in efficiently.

Great place. Nice and quiet. Great personnel

Family run marina that goes above and beyond. They’re just getting started and working hard to please. Convenient to grocery, laundry and ships store. Good stop for loopers. 5 star based on the staff.

Fantastic marina. The new owners are doing it right. Friendly,safe, most anything you need is a short walk away.

We stayed on the old lock was and the water depth was great. The bathroom/ shower-house was fantastic. Vary helpful and friendly folks there. highly recommend Henry harbor

Excellent stay, harber host was very helpful

Amazingly friendly hosts!! Provided s’mores for a camp fire for our group. Very clean, welcoming bathrooms. We we rafted off on the lock wall and still had access to water and electricity!! Highly recommended.

They are very engaged and working very hard for everyone's comfort. A great stop

Great stop! Fran rolls out the red carpet for everyone.

Rustic but super nice people (Fran & David) that love loopers. Also, David has a plumbing business so if you need some work done let them know. Planned on staying one night, but ended up staying for two.

The facilities here are nice & very accommodating! We were on the wall on the old lock, so you need bumpers but it was a very quiet & peaceful night! Fran brought 11 of us in to the wall very efficiently!

Classic place to stay along the old lock wall with plenty of depth. Very helpful with docking and getting power set up. Brand new bathhouse, excellent facility with green and red lights for occupancy assessment at a distance! Would stay many times again.

We liked this marina. Quiet and very welcoming. We called with only a six hour noticed and they fit us in.

New clean restroom with showers was wonderful. Service by the marina manager, Fran was above average by far.

Wonderful people very friendly. New very nice bathrooms clever safe secure and quiet wall to tie too if your a bigger boat !

A very quaint Marina and services. The wall is old and rough stone but it is very well protected. The staff were on hand when eight of us came in all at once. They were well organised and had things well in hand. The power is from a pole a little distance away but they had extensions available and standing by if needed. We rafted up with our buddy boat to get everyone in and we had power for both boats. Water is also available and also a short distance away. The bath house is excellent and clean. I will definitely stay here again when I’m in the area.

Nice stop on the river en route downstream. Owners are super nice and welcome loopers. They helped us 8 boats tie up and organized our order beforehand. Had electric extension lines for those who needed it. SHowers are a little walk but super nice. They made a camp fire for the group in the evening. The rock wall that you tie to looks a bit daunting but is not an issue. SHort walk to town and local restaurant and hardware. We would definitely stop again in our 40’ four foot draft trawler. Price is good too.

Friendly harbormaster husband and wife team and great showers!

Great stop on the Illinois River! Best bathroom facilities EVER! Family run marina with the friendliest and helpful people. Thank you Fran, David & Jake! The crew of Erial

Had us (& 4 other boats) tie to old lock wall outside small marina entrance. Rough but doable & chafe protection was provided. Great couple running marina, super communication for arrival details. Ate at good Mexican restaurant just up the hill. Showers available.

The owner was there to help us tie up to a piece of history the wall was the original lock on the river. Small family owned very friendly place it’s still a little rustic. But with this family taking care of it it will only get better. The cleanest bathroom of any marina if ever been to. The town of Henry has everything you need

Fran and family do a terrific job and are extremely helpful. They are very proud of their little slice of heaven and are continuing to improve it. They were very organized getting all of our boats into the old lock. The bathrooms were very clean. They have extensions for your 30 amp cords to reach the power poles. A group of 17 loopers went to eat at Grandma’ Bar and Grill which is a 10 minute walk away. Good food for a great price!

Excellent place to stay! I can’t say enough about Fran and her family (owners). They were very easy to work with, helpful and accommodating. She got 8 Looper boats tucked in on the wall and set up with power. Fran even called ahead to Grandmas restaurant to let them know that 18 Loopers were on the way. Highly recommend!

We had a flotilla of boats too big for their slips, but they accepted us anyway. They organized our entry and caught our ropes as we rafted up on their outer wall. Fran gave us a briefing and arranged for 18 of us to have dinner at local restaurant. Such nice people. Would stay there again.

Pleasant and great coordination.

Fran was organized, attentive, and friendly. She’s just taken over the Marina and is making it a lovely spot. They thrive on our business—stop at Henry!

Great stay! Fran was great communicating with us and helping us get docked. We enjoyed docktales on the picnic tables that were there beside the lock wall. Would definitely stay here again.

Very nice wall and great couple that owns it.

Nice stay on the wall of the old Lock...the Mexican Rest across the street was good and 2 ate for $30 including a generous tip. Facilities were limited to port-o-potty, but that should be upgraded next year.

New owners and property with lots of history. Great communication. If you stay on the historical lock wall have plenty of fenders. Slips available if you draft 3 feet or less. No amenities yet. (Other than clean porta potties). Pretty views. Dog friendly

Nice quiet area off the Illinois River. The couple that bought the marina are working hard to make improvements! We stayed on the old lock wall which was jagged but fine as the river current slow coming through. Great WiFi, clean porta pots, no showers.

I really enjoyed my stay at Henry Harbor marina, they have new owners who are working very hard to improve the marina, due to low water we were tied at the rustic old block wall in the channel which was very well protected and I thought was really neat with stone block and rebar rings to tie to, they had porta potties, water and electric for us. This is all stated in their description so there were no surprises. Fran messaged several times, With pictures and a good description. Really enjoyed my time here would love to come back!

Henry Harbor Marina is both a Historic stay and an American Dream stay . . . Historic in that the outside “canal/fuel dock” area is the remnants of one of the first locks (1870) built along the Illinois River to extend commerce . . . The American Dream in that the new owners of the Marina, MaryFrances, David & Jacob Passini, lifelong boaters, have purchased this marina that was going to close to revive it and keep Henry, Illinois, an active boating community, both current business owners, but dedicated to continuous improvement of the marina, during the season they live on their boat at the marina . . . They are working hard to accommodate each and every need you may have . . . 30am power (50 amp with splitter), fuel (diesel/gas), can accommodate larger draft boats in the “lock” area and smaller ones inside the harbor (floating docks), water, near town (a couple of blocks away), laundromat in town . . . Enjoyable meal at Gramma’s Bar & Grill, tell Val there that MV CLASSEA & VOODOO said, “Hello”!

One of my favorite tie-ups. If you draw 3’ or less, you can dock inside the marina but if you’re lucky, you get to tie up to the oldest lock wall on the Illinois. It dates from 1870 and was the first lock on the Illinois. The spot is rustic, serene, and scenic. There is power and water and the porta-loos are spotless. Short walk to grocery store and restaurants. The new owners, Fran and her husband, are wonderful folk. Fran even sent me some wonderful photos she took of our boat Green Eyes as we were coming in. Loved our stay.

This is a work in progress. Facilities are very rough. They have gas, diesel and 30 amp electric. New owners Fran and Bill are working hard to make this a good stop. They couldn't be nicer.

The wall was secure and the owners were on the job working hard to make cherry the stay was good. There are picnic tables and we grilled out with other loopers. Can’t wait to see what they do with the place down the road.

Great little place for a stop over. New owners were very helpful and are working to add amenities. Plenty of water for deep draft vessels on the old lock wall. No drinking water there yet but plenty of 30 amp power.

Owner was super helpful in getting 3 trawlers docked on rough wall. Location was nice.

This is a very nice family owned and operated harbor! You couldn’t ask for better people to run a place like this! They are working relentlessly to get the place back into tip top shape, as they are new owners, and I can appreciate that!

Great people! Beautiful sights!

No other amenities, just power& fuel. We tied up on the old lock wall but at least it was calm and we walked to the Dairy Queen. New owners, very nice and trying very hard. Call them direct, don’t bother with Docwa!

We did an overnight stay tied up to the ancient lock wall in 12’ of water. Storms were predicted for that night, and I did not trust the very open water anchorage at Upper Henry Island. This marina is best for a no frills, trusted overnight stay. You will be tying up to metal handholds drilled into the ancient lock stones. There was power available, but we just ran the generator. It is a very short walk up the hill to a cute Mexican / burger restaurant, and a Dairy Queen. Also a huge farm based True Value which is fully stocked. The new marina owners are available by a phone call to provide diesel and gas in a facility that has more than 3’ of water (which is rare from here to Peoria in normal summer pool). They will also give advice about the local town on top of the hill, as they are locals. This is not a glamorous transient marina. If you want/ need that, go back up the river to Ottawa. If you want a safe, secure, deep water overnight tie up with no amenities (no water, restrooms, etc), but with diesel and gas, no wakes from the river, in 12’ of water even at summer pool depths on the river, super helpful owners, and a cute town (Henry) up the hill, this stop is perfect.