Before Settlement

Settlement & Industry

Channelization

Flooding

Human Impact

Current Management

Bibliography

Settlement & Industry
Steamboats ~ Lumber ~ Factories

In 1823 the steamboat Virginia voyaged through the Rock Island rapids on its way to Minnesota and subsequently brought migration northward (American Mosaic 1).  The Mississippi river area provided plenty of resources for development.  There was an abundance of wood, limestone, and coal in addition to water power provided by the twenty-four foot fall of the rapids. The rapids themselves were a catalyst for development.  Boats often needed assistance through the rough waters and towns quickly formed both at the head and the foot of the rapids.  Antoine LeClaire founded the city of Davenport in 1836 for boats stopping at the rapids (American Mosaic 11-12).  By 1854 both Davenport and Rock Island were major steamboat stops. In addition, in 1855 the town of LeClaire, Iowa, was booming as  a home to river pilots, clerks, engineers and wintering rivermen (American Mosaic 16).  In this way, steamboats such as the one pictured to the left,  led the way for the urbanization of land by the river's edge.

Coupled with the railroads, steamboats  made the Mississippi riverfront the central business district for the Quad Cities.  Steamboats could transport bulk quantities of goods along the river and those goods were then transported by rail to anywhere in the country.  River traffic was high.  One citizen commented in 1887, " 'Hardly an hour passes without a steamboat in sight; the electric lamps illuminating at night the picturesque shores in the most gorgeous manner' " (Svendsen 29).

In later years the role of the steamboat was assumed  by the towboat and barge.  After the nine-foot channel was established through dredging of the river and the lock and dam system, river traffic boomed.  The shipping capacity of the towboat and barge, such as the one pictured at the right, far surpassed the amount handled by steamboats in the past.  In 1857, 2,500 tons of cargo were carried by 22 steamboats; in 1947 just one towboat pushed 18,500 tons of cargo through the Quad Cities (American Mosaic 62-63).