Campbell's Island | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 41°32′31″N90°25′45″W / 41.54194°N 90.42917°W Coordinates: 41°32′31″N90°25′45″W / 41.54194°N 90.42917°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Illinois |
County | Rock Island County |
Township | Hampton Township |
Area | |
• Total | 0.74 sq mi (1.91 km2) |
• Land | 0.45 sq mi (1.17 km2) |
• Water | 0.28 sq mi (0.73 km2) |
Elevation | 571 ft (174 m) |
Population (2020) | |
• Total | 275 |
• Density | 605.73/sq mi (234.12/km2) |
Time zone | UTC-6 (CST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
FIPS code | 17-10786 |
Campbell's Island is an island and unincorporated community in the Mississippi River. The island is located in Hampton Township, Rock Island County, Illinois. It is adjacent to the city of East Moline and is connected to the city by a bridge. It is the site of the Campbell's Island State Memorial, a listed historic site overseen by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
Historical population | |||
---|---|---|---|
Census | Pop. | %± | |
2020 | 275 | — | |
U.S. Decennial Census [2] |
Campbell's Island was the site of the Battle of Rock Island Rapids, one of the westernmost battles of the War of 1812, when a band of approximately 500 Sauk warriors allied with the British Army clashed on July 19, 1814, with an American force led by Lieutenant John Campbell of the 1st U.S. Regiment of Infantry. Campbell was leading three gunboats along the Mississippi River to carry military supplies to Fort Shelby, located at the present site of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. [3] One boat carried 42 people – soldiers of the 1st U.S. Regiment of Infantry and members of their families. The other two boats carried 66 U.S. Rangers. The British-allied Indians attacked the flotilla in their canoes and forced Campbell to turn back. [4] The American loss was 8 men of the 1st Regiment killed and 16 wounded;4 Rangers killed and 8 wounded. [5] This victory helped to enable the Sauk to maintain their control over the Quad Cities area for almost 20 more years. The Campbell's Island State Memorial, dedicated in 1908, commemorates this battle.
However, the movement of Euro-American militiamen and families into northwestern Illinois continued, and in the Black Hawk War of 1832 the Sauk were decisively defeated. The Quad Cities area was "opened to settlement," and Campbell's Island was named in honor of the loser of the 1814 battle, John Campbell. [6]
Five currently active infantry battalions of the Regular Army (1-1 Inf, 2-1 Inf, 1-3 Inf, 2-3 Inf and 4-3 Inf) perpetuate the lineages of elements of the old 1st and 7th Infantry Regiments that were at the Battle of the Rock Island Rapids.
At the turn of the 20th century, Campbell's Island was bought by a streetcar company who intended to build an amusement park which would have covered the island. In 1904 the first streetcar bridge was constructed atop a closing dam that had been built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1899. [7]
Campbell's Island was a popular resort area in the early to mid 20th century. Cottages were available for rent, and some of the more affluent built their own summer cabins. Extra streetcars were added to the island in the mornings and afternoons to accommodate seasonal residents traveling to and from work in the cities.
The House-In-the-Woods, built in 1904, offered dining on the first floor and orchestra concerts in the ballroom on the second floor. It was destroyed by fire in 1911, but rebuilt the following spring and eventually renamed The Campbell's Island Inn. In the late 1950s the inn became the Ship's Wheel Boat Club, encompassing a visitor's dock and marina. After surviving flood damage in 1965, the boat club and marina burned down in 1979. [7] [8]
The size and shape of Campbell's Island has been somewhat variable in historic times, due to additions and subtractions created by the power of the Mississippi River. Today, the island is approximately 1.25 miles (2 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.8 km) wide. It is the home of a suburban community that dwells on a ring road that circles the island. The low-lying Campbell's Island is subject to flooding, and many of the island homes are raised, built on stilts, or otherwise constructed so as to minimize damage during periods of high water such as the Great Flood of 1993. The bridge to East Moline was built in 1938 and completely rebuilt in 1999. [9]
The Rock Island Rapids, a riffle in the Upper Mississippi River after which the 1814 battle was named, have disappeared. The riffle was replaced in 1934 by Lock and Dam No. 15, an engineering structure several miles downstream from Campbell's Island.
Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. It is located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, and is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population estimate of 382,630 and a CSA population of 474,226; it is the 90th largest CSA in the nation. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine Le Claire and was named for his friend George Davenport, a former English sailor who served in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812, served as a supplier Fort Armstrong, worked as a fur trader with the American Fur Company, and was appointed a quartermaster with the rank of colonel during the Black Hawk War. According to the 2010 census, the city had a population of 99,685. The city appealed this figure, arguing that the Census Bureau missed a section of residents, and that its total population was more than 100,000. The Census Bureau estimated Davenport's 2019 population to be 101,590.
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,340 miles (3,770 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the thirteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
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, which as of 2013 had a population estimate of 383,781 and a Combined Statistical Area (CSA) population of 474,937, making it the 90th-largest CSA in the nation.
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 2010 census, it had a population of 147,546. 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 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities have an estimated population of 381,342. The city is the ninth-most populated city in Illinois outside the Chicago Metropolitan Area. The corporate headquarters of Deere & Company is located in Moline, as was Montgomery Elevator, which was founded and headquartered in Moline until 1997, when it was acquired by Kone Elevator, which has its U.S. Division headquartered in Moline. Quad City International Airport, Black Hawk College, and the Quad Cities campus of Western Illinois University-Quad Cities are located in Moline. Moline is a retail hub for the Illinois Quad Cities, as South Park Mall and numerous big-box shopping plazas are located in the city.
Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Arsenal Island. The population was 37,108 at the 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River, it is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring Moline, East Moline, and the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf. The Quad Cities has a population of about 380,000. The city is home to Rock Island Arsenal, the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the US, which employs 6,000 people.
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.
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.
The Rock Island Centennial Bridge, officially the Master Sargeant Stanley W. Talbot Memorial Bridge, connects Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa. The bridge is 3,850 feet (1,173 m) long and stands 170 feet (52 m) above water level.
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.
Illinois Route 92 is an east–west state highway in northwest Illinois. It runs from the Norbert F. Beckey Bridge across the Mississippi River where it meets the eastern end of Iowa Highway 92, east to U.S. Route 34 in La Moille. This is a distance of 106.41 miles (171.25 km). Illinois Route 92 is part of a continuous 886-mile (1,426 km) four-state "Highway 92" which begins in Torrington, Wyoming, goes through Nebraska and Iowa and ends in La Moille, Illinois.
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 Credit Island. It was listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties February 3, 1999.
The siege 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.
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.
Steamboats played a major role in the 19th-century development of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, allowing practical large-scale transport of passengers and freight both up- and down-river. Using steam power, riverboats were developed during that time which could navigate in shallow waters as well as upriver against strong currents. After the development of railroads, passenger traffic gradually switched to this faster form of transportation, but steamboats continued to serve Mississippi River commerce into the early 20th century. A small number of steamboats are still used for tourist excursions in the 21st century.
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 too ambushed in the Battle of Credit Island and forced to retreat southwards.
The Western Theater of the War of 1812 was an area of interest during the War of 1812 between the United States of America 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.