Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a combined statistical area population of 474,019, ranking as the 147th-largest MSA and 91st-largest CSA in the nation. According to the 2020 census, the city had a population of 101,724, making it Iowa's third-most populous city after Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836, by Antoine Le Claire and named for his friend George Davenport.
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 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.
Scott County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 174,669, making it the third-most populous county in Iowa. The county seat is Davenport.
Bettendorf is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States. It is the 15th largest city of Iowa and the third-largest city in the "Quad Cities". It is part of the Davenport–Moline–Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 39,102 at the 2020 census.
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.
The Interstate 74 Bridge, officially known as the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge, and often called The Twin Bridges, or the I-74 Bridge, are basket-handle, through arch twin bridges that carry Interstate 74 across the Mississippi River and connect Bettendorf, Iowa, and Moline, Illinois. It is located near the geographic center of the Quad Cities.
KLJB is a television station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Quad Cities area. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of Rock Island, Illinois–licensed CBS affiliate WHBF-TV and Burlington, Iowa–licensed CW owned-and-operated station KGCW, for the provision of certain services. The three stations share studios in the Telco Building on 18th Street in downtown Rock Island; KLJB's transmitter is located near Orion, Illinois.
The Mississippi Valley Conference is a high-school athletic conference whose members are located in the metropolitan areas of eastern region of the U.S. state of Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Iowa City and Waterloo-Cedar Falls.
The Miss Iowa competition is the official preliminary for the state of Iowa in the Miss America Scholarship Competition.
Newspapers, radio, and television in the Quad Cities area of the United States.
Clarissa C. Cook Library/Blue Ribbon News Building was located at 528 Brady Street, Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was noted on the National Register of Historic Places in April, 1983 as Cook Memorial Library and listed in July 1983 under the "Clarissa C. Cook Library/Blue Ribbon News Bldg." name. It has subsequently been torn down, and was delisted from the National Register in 2014.
William P. Bettendorf was an American inventor. He is credited with the invention of the power lift sulky plow, the Bettendorf metal wheel and the one-piece railroad truck frame. By the age of 53 he held 94 patents. With his younger brother, Joseph W. Bettendorf, he founded the Bettendorf Axle Company. His first wife and children preceded him in death. He died as the company was rapidly expanding and before he moved into a palatial home he was building. The city of Bettendorf, Iowa is named after the two brothers.
The Dispatch–Argus is a daily morning newspaper in Davenport, Iowa and circulated primarily throughout the Illinois side of the Quad Cities — Moline, East Moline, Rock Island and Rock Island County, but also for sale in retail establishments on the Iowa side of the Quad Cities — Davenport and Bettendorf. The Dispatch is circulated in and around Moline while The Rock Island Argus is circulated in and around that city. The two are essentially the same newspaper, only with different front covers. They have a combined circulation of about 25,000.
U.S. Highway 67 (US 67) is a U.S. Highway in extreme eastern Iowa. The route begins in Davenport at the Rock Island Centennial Bridge where it crosses the Mississippi River and ends at an intersection with US 52 and Iowa Highway 64 (Iowa 64) west of Sabula. It passes through Bettendorf, Le Claire, and Clinton. Except for Folletts, every community which US 67 enters sits along the Mississippi River. As such, most of the route is part of the Great River Road, an All-American Road.
Interstate 74 (I-74) is the central freeway through the Iowa Quad Cities. It roughly divides Davenport to the west and Bettendorf to the east. The Interstate Highway begins at an interchange with I-80 at the northeastern edge of Davenport and continues into Illinois at the Mississippi River by crossing the I-74 Bridge. The freeway was built in stages during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Greater Quad Cities, IA/IL is a nickname for the Davenport–Moline, IA–IL Combined Statistical Area, an area that is made up of four counties in Iowa and three in Illinois. The statistical area includes one metropolitan areas and two micropolitan area. As of the 2010 Census, the CSA had a population of 471,551.
The Wilson Building, also known as the Wilson Buildings, is a historic structure located in downtown Clinton, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
The WOC Broadcasting Center is a historic building located just north of Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. Robert Karlowa, a music store owner in Rock Island, Illinois, began experimenting with radio transmission in 1907. He had a Morse code broadcasting station before taking up voice broadcasting. His radiophone station was granted call letters 9-BY and in 1922 he was granted the call letters WOC. B. J. Palmer, the president of Palmer School of Chiropractic, bought the station in March of that year and moved Karlowa's equipment to Davenport. He then bought new Western Electric equipment and dedicated his new station on the Pamer campus on October 8, 1922. WOC became one of the original members of the NBC Radio Network in 1926. WOC was an AM broadcasting station, its FM station signed on the air in October 1948. Palmer applied for a television license in 1947, and WOC-TV went on the air on October 31, 1949. It was Iowa's first commercial television station. The Ed Ryan home across the street from the Palmer campus was acquired, remodeled and expanded for a broadcast studio. In 1963, the present building replaced the Ryan house on the same property. They spent more than $2 million on its construction and equipment. After Palmer Communications sold the radio stations in 1986, they moved to a new building on Davenport's eastern border with Bettendorf. WOC Broadcasting Center now houses KWQC-TV, the call letters WOC-TV changed to after the sale. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
KFQC was a radio station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, United States, serving the Quad Cities area and broadcasting on 1580 kHz AM. It was last owned by Quad City Minority Broadcasters, Inc., and operated from 1952 to 1998.
