Jo and her family lived in the Quad Cities (Rock Island, Moline IL, Bettendorf and Davenport IA – pop. 393,000) until she was in her 40s, so she well knows the area and its highlights. Lots of places are nostalgic for her. During each of our summer RV trips for the last 10 years we have spent several weeks in the area.
One of the first places we go when arriving in the Quad Cities is to a local ice cream parlor, Whitey’s, for a milkshake. There are 5 Whitey’s stores in the area.
Here are our milkshakes the very day we arrived in the Quad Cities this year, our first port of call!
One of the small chain restaurants of the area is Maid-Rite. The restaurant specializes in loose hamburger meat served on a hamburger bun. One is supposed to eat it without utensils!
The bun at the right is the large sized.
A highlight in Davenport is the Figge Art Museum, named after the benefactor family. lts forerunner was formed in 1878, making it the first municipal art gallery in the country. The glass clad building opened in 2005 is in downtown Davenport near the Mississippi River. It has permanent displays of art, often with travelling displays on the first floor. The current travelling display features the Wizard of OZ, including the early Oz books and the well known 1939 movie with Judy Garland. Social events are held at the museum, and its open area facing the river is ideal for seeing the 4th of July fireworks production Red White and Boom.
Above is one of the prized displays of the museum – a Tiffany window originally in the Mausoleum of the Weyerhaeuser family in Rock Island. The window was stolen from the structure and was lost for many many years until the FBI recovered if from a shipment bound for Japan. The family loaned it the the Figge.
From a window in the Figge one can view one of the gambling casinos in the area. While in the form of a riverboat, this one does not leave its moorings.
Across the river, in downtown Moline is the John Deere Pavilion. A few of the large machines made in the local John Deere factories are on permanent display. The machines it builds for industrial and construction work are yellow, and those for agriculture are green. Above is a huge loader.
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And here is a large combine with a head attachment for wheat. A separate head is available for harvesting corn. A new combine this size costs over $500,000! Visitors are encouraged to climb up in the operator’s seat. Old models of John Deere tractors are on display as well as two machines for tree harvesting. In an adjacent building all sorts of John Deere memorabilia are for sale – apparel, scale models of equipment, etc.
Deere is the second largest employer in the Quad City area.
Lock and dam no. 15 are located at Arsenal Island on the Illinois side, with a nice visitors center. Above, a lash-up of 9 empty barges (3 wide) going upriver has been pulled through the lock by a cable. The lock doors are closing so the water level can be lowered to receive the 6 remaining barges and their tow boat.
The section of 6 remaining barges are below the other lock gate at the far left. It takes about two hours for this set of barges and their tow boat to go through the lock.
The Arsenal bridge is in the background. Lock structures block the view of the dam.
Above and below are samples of some of the military weapons made at the Arsenal. The grounds also contain a national cemetery and a separate cemetery for Confederate soldiers who died while held as prisoners there. Headquarters of the First Army are on the island, too.
The Rock Island Arsenal is the Quad Cities largest employer. Its earliest mass produced product was the M1903 bolt action rifle. During WW II it produced tanks, howitzers, machine guns, heavy artillery and related components.
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