{"id":10940,"date":"2024-05-02T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10940"},"modified":"2026-01-04T13:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:24:42","slug":"quad-cities-attractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10940","title":{"rendered":"Quad Cities Attractions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Everyone knows what the big US cities are all about. But the country\u2019s mid-sized towns also offer possibilities for tourists and aren\u2019t so overwhelming. And there\u2019s parking. We recently visited the Quad Cities\u2014Davenport and Bettendorf ,Iowa, and Rock Island and the Molines in northwest Illinois\u2014population 468,000. Whoever thought of going there? My husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stayed two nights at the restored Hotel Blackhawk<\/a> in Davenport\u2014a 1915 gem (lobby ceiling pictured), beautifully restored and now one of Marriott\u2019s autograph collection hotels. The restaurants were fine, not fabulous, the martini bar was fun, and the guest rooms had many little touches to make a guest\u2019s stay more enjoyable. They were the epitome of \u201cit\u2019s the little things that count.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the cities\u2019 size, they\u2019re easy to get around in, but you have to cross the Mississippi River to travel from one state to the other. We wanted to see the Rock Island Arsenal and associated attractions which are entered from the Illinois side (GPS saved us) via the Moline Gate, and you have to get a military ID card at the Visitors Control Center\u2014they check your criminal record, BTW. I guess we were \u201cOK.\u201d It\u2019s the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the country and a National Historic Landmark. Both a National Cemetery and Confederate cemetery are there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We knew the Rock Island Arsenal had been a major manufacturer of US arms and armaments in both World Wars up until today, but we hadn\u2019t realized it\u2019s also the home base of the First Army, so lots of barracks and military housing, as well as beautiful old stone buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Mississippi River visitor center is on the island, and that was our first stop. It\u2019s smallish, with enthusiastic staff. It\u2019s also well positioned, overlooking two locks (Locks and Dam #15<\/a>) that help boat traffic navigate the changing depths of the river. There are 29 lock and dam structures along the upper Mississippi that maintain a 9-foot navigation channel, allowing boats of all kinds to travel from St. Paul, Minn., to St. Louis, Mo.\u2014around a 400-foot drop. Below St. Louis the incoming water from the Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, and Arkansas rivers widen and deepen the Mississippi, and the lock are no longer necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nearby is a still-used, historical railway swing bridge, one section of which can pivot out of the way to allow taller boat traffic to pass beneath. (If the accompanying animation will work, you\u2019ll see the bridge in action, as well as Mississippi barge traffic entering and leaving the locks.) The locks and dam structures are the province of the Army Corps of Engineers, which has a headquarters building on Rock Island. The building has a clock tower, built in 1867, and the clock isn\u2019t working. Hmmmm. They should fix that. And, of course, you\u2019re thinking of the Rock Island Line<\/a> and Johnny Cash. The Rock Island Railway was so famous in its day it was Jesse James’s choice for his first robbery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The museum, with the history of armaments (focusing on their manufacture) was well done and impressively large. You may be glad to know that the military is up-to-date with 3D printing, and at Rock Island it\u2019s tested for use in creating spare parts no longer available or quickly needed tools and parts in the field, as well as lighter-weight gear. In the military, 3D printing is termed \u201cadditive manufacturing.\u201d The museum takes pains to acknowledge the contributions to its history from Black Americans, who guarded its camp for Confederate prisoners, and women, who took on the manufacturing jobs when the men went overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A great way to spend half a day! We skipped the botanical gardens (rain) and went to the art museum instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone knows what the big US cities are all about. But the country\u2019s mid-sized towns also offer possibilities for tourists and aren\u2019t so overwhelming. And there\u2019s parking. We recently visited the Quad Cities\u2014Davenport and Bettendorf ,Iowa, and Rock Island and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Probably you flew right over this fascinating spot and never knew it was there--the Quad Cities!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[266,104,78],"tags":[2178,2176,2177],"class_list":["post-10940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-the-morgue","category-travel","tag-midwest","tag-quad-cities","tag-rock-island-arsenal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2Qs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10940"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10945,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10940\/revisions\/10945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}