The Quad Cities is a region of cities in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are the center of the Quad Cities metropolitan area, a region within the Mississippi River Valley, which as of 2023 had a population estimate of 467,817 and a Combined Statistical Area (CSA) population of 474,019, making it the 90th-largest CSA in the nation.
The Sauk or Sac are Native Americans and Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their historical territory was near Green Bay, Wisconsin. Today they have three tribes based in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Their federally recognized tribes are:
Rock Island County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois, bounded on the west by the Mississippi River. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 144,672. Its county seat is Rock Island; its largest city is neighboring Moline. Rock Island County is one of the four counties that make up the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 41,654 in 2024, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities at the confluence of the Rock and Mississippi rivers, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities had a population of about 380,000 in 2023. The city is the ninth-most populous in Illinois outside the Chicago metropolitan area.
Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The population was 37,108 at the 2020 census. Located at the confluence of the Rock and Mississippi rivers, it is one of the Quad Cities along with neighboring Moline and East Moline in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities had a population of 384,324 in 2020. The city is home to Rock Island Arsenal, the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the US, which employs 6,000 people. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Arsenal Island.
Fort Madison is a city and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 10,270 at the time of the 2020 census. Located along the Mississippi River in the state's southeast corner, it lies between small bluffs along one of the widest portions of the river.
The Battle of Longwoods took place during the Anglo-American War of 1812. On 4 March 1814, a mounted American raiding party defeated an attempt by British regulars, volunteers from the Canadian militia and Native Americans to intercept them near Wardsville, in present-day Southwest Middlesex, Ontario.
The Rock Island Arsenal comprises 946 acres and is located on Arsenal Island, originally known as Rock Island, on the Mississippi River between the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. It is home to the United States Army First Army Headquarters, and the United States Army Center of Excellence for Additive Manufacturing.
Black Hawk, born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, was a Sauk leader and warrior who lived in what is now the Midwestern United States. Although he had inherited an important historic sacred bundle from his father, he was not a hereditary civil chief. Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions: leading raiding and war parties as a young man and then a band of Sauk warriors during the Black Hawk War of 1832.
The Battle of Maguaga was a small battle between British troops, Canadian militia and Tecumseh's natives against a larger force of American troops, Ohio Volunteers and Michigan Legion near the Wyandot village of Maguaga which become The Township of Monguagon Township, Michigan in what is now The City of Riverview, Michigan.
During the War of 1812, the Illinois Territory was the scene of fighting between Native Americans and United States soldiers and settlers. The Illinois Territory at that time included the areas of modern Illinois, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota and Michigan.
The Black Hawk State Historic Site, in Rock Island, Illinois, is adjacent to the historic site of the village of Saukenuk, the home of a band of Native Americans of the Sauk nation. It includes the John Hauberg Museum of Native American Life. The state park is located on a 150 feet (50 m) bluff overlooking the Rock River in western Illinois. It is most famous for being the birthplace of the Sauk warrior Black Hawk. The disputed cession of this area to the U.S. Government was the catalyst for the Black Hawk War.
Credit Island is an island in the Mississippi River on the south west side of Davenport, Iowa within the Quad Cities area. Its name was derived by the use of the island as an early Indian trading post. Credit could be obtained on the promise of hides and skins to be delivered at a later time, hence the name. It was listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties on February 3, 1999.
The Battle of Prairie du Chien was a British victory in the far western theater of the War of 1812. During the war, Prairie du Chien was a small frontier settlement with residents loyal to both American and British causes. By 1814, both nations were anxious to control the site because of its importance to the fur trade and its strategic location at the intersection of the Mississippi River and the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway, a transportation route linking the Mississippi with the Great Lakes.
Antoine Le Claire was an American military interpreter, businessman, philanthropist, and principal founder of Davenport, Iowa.
Colonel George Davenport, born George William King, was a 19th-century English-American sailor, frontiersman, fur trader, merchant, postmaster, US Army soldier, Indian agent, and city planner. A prominent and well-known settler in the Iowa Territory, he was one of the earliest settlers in Rock Island. He spent much of his life involved in the early settlement of the Mississippi Valley and the "Quad Cities". The present-day city of Davenport, Iowa is named after him.
The Battle of Frenchman's Creek took place during the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States in the early hours of November 28, 1812, in the Crown Colony of Upper Canada, near the Niagara River. The operation was conceived as a raid to prepare the ground for a larger American invasion. The Americans succeeded in crossing the Niagara and landing at both of their points of attack. They achieved one of their two objectives before withdrawing but the invasion was subsequently called off, rendering useless what had been accomplished. The engagement was named, "the Battle of Frenchman's Creek" by the Canadians, after the location of some of the severest fighting. To contemporary Americans, it was known as, "the Affair opposite Black Rock".
The Battle of Rock Island Rapids, also called the Battle of Campbell Island, was an American defeat during the War of 1812 at the hands of the British allied Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo. In July 1814, a military expedition was mounted to supply the U.S. garrison at Prairie du Chien after calls for help. The U.S. expedition was ambushed on July 19. In the aftermath another expedition was sent to re-capture Prairie after it fell to the British. This expedition was also ambushed in the Battle of Credit Island and forced to retreat southwards.
The Western theater of the War of 1812 was a theater of war during the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom. Far from the Atlantic Coast and large cities, logistics and communication were more challenging in the western territories and the United States frontier. For many Native American nations involved, this war was a continuation of the defense of their lands against encroaching settlers.
