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Muscatine county was formed originally in 1836 as part of the Wisconsin
Territory from a partition of Des Moines County (which actually contains
Burlington, not Des Moines). The name probably comes from the 50-square-mile
flatland flood plain of
Muscatine Island (not an island, but borders the Mississippi River), itself
named as a corruption of the now extinct Mascouten tribe who were winnowed
by clashes with the French and Potawatomi and disappeared as a distinct
nation by the middle of the 19th century; their descendents
integrated into the present-day Kickapoo tribe. The county has 42,929
residents [2018] with its county seat at Muscatine.
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Turnoff to West Branch and the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.
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The Herbert Hoover Nat'l Historic Site is a unit of the National Park
System established in 1965. It encompasses the 31st President's 1874
birthplace cottage (reacquired by the family during the Depression) along
with a demonstration blacksmith shop similar to his father's, the first
West Branch schoolhouse and the Quaker meetinghouse the family attended.
The official presidential library opened in 1962 and the entire
property became a National
Historic Landmark in 1965 shortly before its incorporation into the Park
System. The present facility occupies 186.8 acres, with an 81-acre tallgrass
prairie preserve, and both the President and former First Lady Lou Henry
Hoover are buried on the grounds.
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Entering West Liberty.
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West Liberty's name came from Liberty, OH, from which many early regional
settlers hailed. Incorporated in 1868, it stood at the junction of the
Chicago-Rock Island-Pacific and Burlington-Cedar Rapids-and-Northern railroads,
where it was moved to better take advantage of the facilities. Originally
referred to as Wapsinonoc Township, an Algonquin(?) term for a smooth-surfaced
meandering creek, the new name was applied by the wife of the town's first
postmaster with West added for disambiguation. The modern city has 3,766
residents [2019].
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Through town.
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Junction IA 70, with another sign for the Hiawatha Pioneer Trail along US 6.
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The 2,400-mile Hiawatha Pioneer Trail was a tourist-promotion route established
in 1964 by agreement between Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The
meandering routing did not correlate exactly with any one historic trail and
was openly designed to string together as many attractions as possible; each
state was to identify twenty such attractions
and a routing to connect them, which invariably
used existing highway alignments. Iowa's included
the Herbert Hoover Nat'l Historic Site, the Amana Colonies, the former State
Capitol Building in Iowa City, various Mississippi River and Native American
tribal sites and many others, meaning US 6 was only part of the routing, and
only part of the routing was US 6. The tourism increase promised by its boosters
failed to materialize in quantity and Illinois was the first one to remove
the signage in 1972. As the route was now superfluous,
Wisconsin started taking down their own signs shortly afterward and
Minnesota and Iowa followed suit in 2008, meaning the signage in this Part and
the one we saw between Ladora and Marengo (Part 24) are
likely no longer in the field.
IA 70 is a small local connector between US 6 here and IA 92 in Columbus
Junction. It runs 24 miles.
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US 6 proceeds on as a quiet, tree-lined street.
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Distance signage leaving town.
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Entering Atalissa.
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First platted in 1859, Atalissa was named for a now-lost Californian mining
town by founder William Lundy, itself ostensibly from a Native American
princess of the same name from an unknown tribe. It was later incorporated
in 1900 and today has a population of 308 [2019]. The city was the site of
the documentary The Men of Atalissa about 32 intellectually disabled
local residents kept in harsh conditions in effective involuntary
servitude to a turkey plant for over three decades. Paid less than $65 a
month after "deductions," their discovery in 2009 was a major black eye to
the social services system in Iowa and they received a $240 million verdict
in damages, though the recompense was later limited to just $50,000 per
person.
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Through Atalissa.
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EB US 6.
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Crossing the Cedar River.
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The Cedar River is the Iowa River (Part 24)'s
main tributary. It flows from southern
Minnesota in three forks to Columbus Junction, IA and joins the Iowa on its
way to the Mississippi. Although larger than the Iowa at their confluence,
it nevertheless has a smaller discharge of 5,800 cubic feet per second and
runs 338 miles. The Meskwaki/Fox named it the Red Cedar River from the
red cedar that grows along its banks, though the "red" appellation was later
dropped, and the river itself lends its name to the eponymous county which we
will reach presently.
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Turnoff to Moscow.
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Junction IA 38, with another Hiawatha Pioneer marker and US 6 marked "TO
US 80."
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US 6/IA 38
IA 38 always ran in this corner of the state, though its ends lengthened and
shortened intermittently as late as 1986. Today it runs roughly from Edgewood
to IA 92 in Muscatine for not quite 100 miles. US 6 and IA 38 multiplex over
about 5 miles from this point.
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EB US 6/NB IA 38.
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Entering Wilton.
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Wilton, part of which extends slightly into Cedar county to the north, is the
terminus of a chain of Wiltons: it was named for Wilton, ME by an early
settler named Butterfield for his hometown, which was named for Wilton, NH,
which was named either for the sculptor Sir Joseph Wilton or the town in
England's Wiltshire, which comes from the Old English wilig
(willow) and tun (town). It was settled as early as 1846 but the
modern city was incorporated in 1855 and features the oldest still-operating
ice cream parlour in the world,
the 1867 Wilton Candy Kitchen. It has 2,824 residents [2019].
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Junction MusCo F58 at Mile 282.
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MusCo F58 (and ScottCo F58) is the old alignment of US 6, also moved to
I-80 in 1980. It extends through Wilton, Durant and Walcott to US 6 on
the outskirts of Davenport, where we will mark the other end. This then
became IA 927, and later decommissioned entirely in the 2003 mass removal.
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Cedar county line.
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Our final county in Iowa and its third-most populous, the county is named
for General Winifred Scott, the presiding officer at the signing of the
peace treaty ending the Black Hawk War ( Part 23).
Founded in 1837 and the site of the earliest American settlement in the
region at what is now Buffalo, IA, the county has a population of 172,943
[2019] and its seat and largest city at Davenport.
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Distance signage on I-80.
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Advance signage for I-280, onto which US 6 will diverge towards Davenport.
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Exiting to I-280.
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I-280/US 6
Interstate 280 is the southwestern portion of the Quad Cities beltway around
Davenport on the Iowa side and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline on the
Illinois side (and, later, Bettendorf on the Iowa side, but by then the name
had stuck); the northeastern leg is formed by I-80, with I-74 in the middle.
Just under 27 miles in length, roughly 9.6 miles of it are
in Iowa and the remainder on the other side of the river. Originally I-80
went down where I-74 does now with the initial Interstate plan in 1958;
the northeastern loop was designated I-274
and I-74 went between what was then I-80 and I-274 and south out of town,
but AASHTO revised it to the current designation later in the year. The northern
stub between I-80 and US 6 opened in 1960 and the remainder in 1973. Although
Illinois proposed changing I-280 to I-80, putting I-74 on the vacated I-80
alignment and creating a new I-174 over the vacated I-74 alignment in 1991,
Iowa did not submit a concurring application and the FHWA ruled in 1993
to retain the current routings.
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More same-pole, same-size-shield love! Such love!
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Entering Davenport.
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Davenport is the largest city in the Quad Cities area at 101,590
residents [2019]; combined, the five component cities have over a population
of over 380,000. It was first founded in 1836 by businessman and landowner
Antoine Le Claire who named it for his friend George Davenport. Born 1783,
Davenport was a sailor until 1803 when he was imprisoned by the Russian Tsar
in observance of Napoleon's embargo on British vessels and released back
to his home in the United Kingdom in 1804. He arrived in New York
the following summer but was effectively stuck in the city due to a leg
injury, and decided to settle in the United States. He enlisted in the U.S.
Army in 1806, served in the War of 1812, and escorted the Potawatomi
delegation to the signage of the Treaty of St. Louis ending the Peoria War
in 1813 (the same
disputed treaty that Black Hawk would later attempt to circumvent in 1832).
He was discharged in 1816 and accompanied an Army delegation as a civilian
supplier to Rock Island on the other side of the River, where he became a
successful merchant and built the first permanent residence in the region in
1819. Later serving as an agent for John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company
and as a quartermaster with the rank of Colonel during the Black Hawk War,
in 1835 he and six others (including Le Claire) purchased land opposite
Rock Island and founded the city. Continuing to serve as a local tribal
agent, he retired to private life in 1842 until he was murdered by bandits
in 1845; two men were eventually sentenced to prison and three were arrested
and executed. Davenport's home still exists today on Rock Island, where it
was renovated and reconstructed in the 1980s after years of disrepair and
is now a museum. Although economic difficulties in the 1980s and the constant
flood risk from the Mississippi River have occasionally impaired the city's
growth, it has repeatedly won awards for livability and affordability, and
the Quad Cities region was ranked among the fastest growing regions for the
tech sector in the 2010s. Its biggest economic sector is
manufacturing, however,
with John Deere being the second largest employer in the area
and having its world headquarters in Moline.
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The first exit immediately throws off US 6, along with the other end of
ScottCo F58 we left earlier.
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We turn right.
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Apparently this alignment is "IA 6," according to Iowa DOT. (Not really.)
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Entering town.
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Mile 303.
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Shortly after this point the old alignment of US 6 diverges off as
Hickory Grove Rd. It then entered downtown Davenport, proceeded east on
Locust St, south on Main St, east on 2nd St, south on Perry St (now
obliterated) and east on 4th St to cross into Illinois and Rock Island
along the 1896 iteration of the Mississippi River Government Bridge,
a 1,608' double-deck truss system with a swing-span section for river traffic.
It is immediately adjacent to Lock and Dam No. 15, which
allows the water level to be dropped under the bridge channel for
added clearance. As originally built in 1856 it was the first railroad
bridge across the River.
In 1935 the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge opened between Bettendorf, IA
and Moline, IL. This then became the northbound lanes of I-74 and US 6, which
we will traverse at the end. The original routing of US 6
became CITY US 6 until around 1965, and US 6 was moved to continue on Locust
east to Bridge Avenue, then south on Bridge to 12th, east on 12th to Mound,
and then south on Mound to River Dr east with US 67, which had been relocated
there earlier that year. US 6 then crossed the River; US 67 continued east
into Riverdale, IA.
In 1937, US 6 was relocated again, this time to the alignment it occupies here,
then to the Kimberly Rd bypass and then across the River. US 6 was moved to
I-74 in Iowa when the last segment was completed in (coincidentally) 1974 and
in Illinois in 1975.
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Continuing on the US 6 1937 bypass alignment.
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Through north Davenport.
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EB US 6.
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Junction US 61.
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US 61 has always started in New Orleans and ended in Minnesota, paralleling
the Mississippi River for much of its routing and earning the name "The
Great River Road" over those sections. Until 1991 it reached the Canadian
border; it was then retracted to I-35 and the remnant became MN 61. Its long
history with blues history has led to its other moniker as the "Blues Highway"
and its southern terminus has appropriately
always been in the New Orleans downtown; Robert
Leroy Johnson supposedly made a deal with the Devil along the highway for his
success, and Bob Dylan's 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited deals with
his relationship to the road specifically. It runs 1,407 miles.
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Continuing through north Davenport.
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Turnoff for Kimberly Rd, the old bypass. This parallels I-74, so we won't do it
here.
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Instead, we get on the highway. This is the end of US 6's independent
routing in Iowa.
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I-74/US 6
This is just three miles shy of its northern terminus at I-80. From here, I-74
is a major backbone route through Illinois, Indiana and a small stub in
Cincinnati, OH, where it terminates currently at I-75. Several disconnected
segments are in North Carolina, where it has a concurrency with US 74 and was
the first time a U.S. highway and Interstate highway with the same number
ran on the same routing (I-41 and US 41 now share a roadbed in Wisconsin
as well). It is unclear when, if ever, all the pieces will link. The current
highway is 429 miles long but we won't travel much of it here.
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Entering the highway at Mile 3.2.
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More same-pole, big-shield love.
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Junction US 67.
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US 67 has a curious arc routing from the Mexican border at Presidio, TX and
MX 16 to US 52 in Sabula, IA. Because of its diagonal swoop through the middle
and lower Midwest it is also unusually long for a non-trunk route, today
running 1560 miles. Its extension to the Mexican border from Dallas was
in 1930; its extension north from Missouri was in 1934 (and retracted to the
present terminus in 1967). Although US 6 was briefly co-routed with it
historically, it is no longer so today.
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The southbound lanes of I-74 (and EB US 6)
crossing the Mississippi River were first opened in 1959.
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The northbound lanes (WB US 6) as we cross back into Iowa are the originals.
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Crossing into Illinois on the 2006 iteration of the Iowa-Illinois
Memorial Bridge.
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The Bridge crosses, of course, the Mississippi River, America's most famous
river body
and the second-longest river and drainage system in North America second only
to the Hudson Bay network, as well as the fourth-longest in the world.
From Lake Itasca in Minnesota, traditionally
considered its headwaters, it travels 2,320 miles to the Mississippi River
Delta in the Gulf of Mexico carrying over three million cubic feet of water
per second at maximum discharge from its mouth in Baton Rouge, LA. Less than
one percent of its drainage basin is in Canada and the entirety of the main
stem is within the United States, and it has been a hub of human habitation
and activity since antiquity. Native Americans lived along the banks of the
river and its tributaries for millenia; white settlers first found the river
a formidable obstacle to westward progress, but later learned to
take advantage of its
deep waters and fertile silted plains for navigation, agriculture and
industry. Life among the river was and is a major source of culture and
heritage for the ten states the river touches directly,
and while it has had more than its share of environmental
concerns, the substantial engineering works dedicated to its upkeep have
also maintained the river's vital
navigability and reduced its natural tendency to
flood and migrate. Even today it is a natural dividing line for the continent,
even
including broadcast callsigns which usually use W to the east and K to the
west of it. The name is Anishinaabe in origin (misiziibi) and
appropriately enough means the great river.
The Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge, when first constructed for US 6 in 1935,
was a Depression-era WPA project built for $1.45 million ($27.5 million as
of 2021) as a toll
facility. It was designed by Ralph Modjeski, a Polish immigrant,
who also designed the Government Bridge US 6 formerly used; Modjeski also
designed the second set of lanes that opened in 1959, which turned out to be
his last commission before his death. On New Year's Eve 1969, the last day it
was tolled,
the charge was 15 cents for cars, 5 cents for pedestrians, and a variable
toll for trucks based on weight and size.
After it was officially subsumed into I-74 in 1975,
its capacity (which was never superlative
even new) became an even greater liability which these pictures
demonstrate: just two lanes per direction, a 50mph speed limit, and no
safety shoulder for breakdowns or accidents. The I-74 project also had to
remove the sidewalks and halt pedestrian traffic, remove the tollbooths,
build new ramps and adjust the approaches. Near the end of its life it was
carrying almost double its rated capacity of 48,000 daily vehicles. A new
Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge
crossing was planned in 2012, built starting in 2017 and completed in 2020,
meaning the suspension spans you see here are today no more.
Coming soon: US 6 in Illinois!
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