Quad Cities
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The Quad Cities are four cities which straddle the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois in the midwestern United States. They are:
The Davenport-Moline-Rock Island Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of four counties: Scott County in Iowa and Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island counties in Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the area has a population of 376,019.
Davenport, Moline, and Rock Island were originally called the Tri-Cities, becoming the Quad Cities with the addition of East Moline. A Fourth city, Bettendorf, later gained prominence as one of the "Quad Cities". As Bettendorf grew its population passed East Moline but the name "Quint Cities" never caught on, though there are a few local businesses that bear the name. While largely a bedroom community, Bettendorf has replaced East Moline as one of the primary urban anchors in the Quad Cities. Nearby smaller cities such as Silvis, Milan, Coal Valley, and Colona, all in Illinois; and the Iowa cities of Eldridge, Long Grove, Park View, Blue Grass, Buffalo, Walcott, Maysville, Mount Joy, Pleasant Valley, Le Claire, Panorama Park and Riverdale are also considered part of the Quad Cities area.
As a patchwork of similarly located but politically different urban units situated at the edge of the Rust Belt, the Quad Cities area serves as an interesting case study on the effects of various economic, social, political, and environmental variables on the trajectory of municipalities seeking economic recovery. Seen as a single urban mass, the Quad Cities perfectly exemplifies the multiple nuclei model of urban arrangement.
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History
In 1832, Keokuk and General Winfield Scott signed a treaty to end the Black Hawk War in 1832 in Davenport. The treaty resulted in the United States gaining 6 million acres (24,000 km²) of land.
John Deere moved his business to Moline, Illinois in 1848. His business was incorporated as Deere & Company in 1868. Deere & Company is now the largest employer in the Quad Cities.
The first railroad bridge built across the Mississippi River connected Davenport and Rock Island, IL in 1856. It was built by the Rock Island Railroad Company. It landed in the same location in Davenport where the Black Hawk War treaty had been signed a few decades earlier. Steamboaters saw nationwide railroads as a threat to their business. On May 6, 1856, just weeks after it was completed, an angry steamboater crashed the Effie Afton steamboat into the bridge. The owner of the Effie Afton, John Hurd, filed a lawsuit against the The Rock Island Railroad Company. The Rock Island Railroad Company selected Abraham Lincoln as their trial lawyer. It was a pivotal trial in Lincoln's career.
Landmarks
- Figge Art Museum
- John O'Donnell Stadium
- The MARK of the Quad Cities - Civic center.
- Quad City Botanical Center
- Rock Island Centennial Bridge
Companies
Colleges
- Augustana College
- Blackhawk College - Community College.
- Palmer Chiropractic College
- Saint Ambrose University
- Scott Community College
- Western Illinois University - Satellite campus in Moline.