For years I have lived near the Mississippi River, and there are plenty of people who were just like me, and as teens we took for granted that the river is so close to us. It is not something that we get to be all that far away from, and there are those who would take it all for granted, and they would just sit there and just ignore the fact that out there is something as beautiful as the river.
As a teenager, I was set to graduate, and I had plans for where I wanted to go to school, and the sad thing is, when you have lived in an area where things are beautiful, you want to be around them from time to time, but I had, like so many others, had ignored the history that came along with the river. We often hear about the things like the lock and dams, and we sit there and do not think about them having a history. Or the bridges that cross the river, them having a history. Well, today, I hope that we can get to know the river that is in our own backyard.
As I said above, as a teen, I had no idea what was there. With the things that were bombarding me, I decided that my freshman year at college I wanted to go somewhere and I wanted to become a youth pastor, and also a theologian. It is quite fun to think that there are so many different things that are out there, but that is the thing, when I moved from the area, I had little intention of returning to the area. And so, I just kind of followed my heart to a college just outside Chicago. It was a beautiful campus, and we were not far from the Kankakee River, and I often found myself drawn there, and it did not take me long to realize that, even though I had no direct link to the Mississippi, I was right there, and the water, while it was not deep, it was a beautiful place to go to escape.
But that was the thing, I had been trying to leave the world of history behind. I wanted to learn things like biblical history, and I loved to research things that were deep, and so often I found that the history that took place all along the river, that it could take me deep. It might tell me things that I had never dreamed of before. But I wanted to escape, but a little way into the year, when I realized that most of the people who I had considered friends that they were anything but friends. And so, as I decided that where I had chosen to go to college was not where I was meant to be.
And I spent time getting to know this wonderful young lady as I was going through treatment for the chronic migraine that I was dealing with, and so, I talked to her, and every time we talked, we would spend hours talking about the odd things that took place during the American Civil War, but that was the thing, there was all this history that was all around me, and there was a part of history that really struck me. I was nowhere near knowing all the things that I wanted to about the leaders and even some of the common soldiers, but as the two of us kept talking, there was this topic that one time came up.
While I had met the young lady, Heather, in a clinic in Southern Illinois, I learned quickly that she was from the greater Chicagoland area, but that was the thing, I was also from an area far from where I had met her, and one time, when we spent a letter to talk about the history of our areas, and one of the facts that struck people, was that Robert E. Lee spent a great deal of time helping tame the Rock Island Rapids as they were called.
About where the bridge is found for the Rock Island Arsenal Bridge, that was where the Rock Island Rapids was located. And Robert E. Lee was tasked with making sure that the rapids were removed, and that the river was something that a boat could navigate. At the same time, while the river was being tamed, there was the groundwork laid for the putting in the lock and dam system that we know exists there today.
But that is the thing, out there were a lot of things, and one of the big things was trying to find a way to get people and materials across the Mississippi River without having to try to find a place to ford the river. But the thing was, they were not sure what was coming and what was going to last. While Lee was trying to tame the river and make it safe for steamboat traffic, there was the rapidly developing railroad. And it was only a matter of time before the time when the railroad would be able to transport people from one side of the Mississippi River and that time was also found in the era when Lee was here, but at the same time a bright young lawyer Abraham Lincoln from Springfield, Illinois, and he saw that there was this thing that was happening, and that was the problem, for those who spent time on the river, there was this fight over who was really the one who should be afforded the dominance over the river.
It was during the presence of Lee and Lincoln that the first railroad bridge was built, spanning the Mississippi River. It was a wooden bridge, but the thing was, that for some reason one night, as a steamboat named the Effie Afton struck the Rock Island Railroad Bridge, that was on the west end of Arsenal Island, not far from where Colonel Davenport lived on the island.
As the above picture shows, the post is roughly where the bridge was. The plaque on the post tells us that the bridge sat on top of the post. But that was the thing, few who traverse the island see this post, and take the time to read the plaque, and what actually happened at this location.
The trial, since it included the railroad, the trial was done in the United States Circuit Court in Chicago. It was there that Lincoln would talk about the progress of technology that would take them over the river and into the west. All of this history, the part about Lee, or the part about Lincoln, they are so important to the story of the development of the Quad Cities, and that was the best part of spending the time along the Mississippi River in the area, you can learn a great deal about
When we take the time to learn about the things that surround us on a daily basis, we learn that there is a lot more that we can learn about where we are. I had taken off, and tried to get into subjects, that I still find really interesting, but to be honest, I prefer telling the stories of local historical locations, but there are times and places for all of this.
We keep hoping that out there we will learn all that there is to know about the area in which we live, but that is not always the case. I can tell you, the post above that tells where the original bridge, spanning the Mississippi River, I had never seen it before, not until I had taken time to explore the history of Arsenal Island.
However, if you plan to go, I stress that you need to know that you need to have some proof that you are a US citizen, and you might have to stop at the visitor’s center before going on the island, but I can assure you, it is well worth the time that you will spend there. There is far more on the Island than the Davenport House, there is also the Lock and Dam 15 visitor’s center, which teaches how the locks work, and much of the history there. While I am not sure that it really talks about the history all that much, there is also the national cemetery that is there. Also there is the museum on the island, and they are all worth the time to check out.
But remember, do not take the things that are around you for granted, no, take the time to get to know these things. There is history all around us, and we just need to take the time to uncover it.
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