Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-03-03
Many Stories Cluster About Gov.
eminent Island.
RECALLED BY BURNING OF ARSENAL
First Became Known During Black
hawk War in 1804-Was Location
of Yankee Prison During the Civil
War. +

" IllSS. WITCH LIE ~
ports of the burning Of the %storehouse
of the Rock Island arsenal first reach
ed the city all hope of securing an i'm
mediate allotment Of these rifles was
given up. Since then it has been
learned that the large consignment of
Krag-Jorgensons which was enroute to
the storchouse from the east was de-
layed and did not arrive until nearly
a week after it was due and two days
after the fire.
According to the Washington Post,
the big fire at the Rock Island arsen-
al attracted almost as much atten-
ton in Washington as it did
in Rock Island and the
neighboring towns. The government
takes great pride in this magnificent
institution, which enjoys the distinc-
ton of being the largest government
institution of this sort in the world.
Many interesting stories cluster around
this historic spot, which old officials
in the war department like to recall.
Island Interesting Historically.
While the middle west as a rule is
comparatively barren in historic inter-
est and presents little to catch the eye
of the traveller passhing owe it's long
levels by train, Rock Island, H.,
where part of the country's greatest
arsenal and mandatory of military
equipments vas burned the other day,
forms a notable exception. The per-
son who fails to find something of
interest at Rock Island must be a
very dull being. First of all, it is
among one of the most remarkable
natural wonders of the Mississippi
valley; historically it was one of the
stations of the Jesuit priests and Can
adian voyagers on this old route from
Montreal to New Orleans, then the
seat and center of the Black Hawk
war, the site of old Fort Armstrong,
and during the civil war a place of
detention of hundreds of Confederate
prisoners. To the anthropologist the
name arouses interest, for it was in
the Rock Island district that some of
the most remarkable remains of alb
original man ever discovered in Amer
lea were found; to the zoologist it is
full of meaning on account of its pc
culiar molluscan rauna, and the civil
engineer remembers hat it was here
that the first locomotive ever operat.
ed in the territory west of the Missis'
sippi was transferred across the Faith.
er of Waters.
Unlike the islands that one meets
farther south, which, composed oil
river alluvium, are constantly appear
ing and disappearing at the rivers ca.
price, Rock Island rises as a high, bold
bluff or ride of limestone three miles
in length and of a goodly width.
Doubtless long ago, during the late
pleistocene period, when the United
States as far south as the Ohio river
lay submerged under a vast field OF
ice field of glaciers as Greenland is to.
day, the great Wisconsin glacier,
grinding its way in a ~southwesterly di.
rection, met and opposed the great
Minnesota ice sheet moving. from the
northwest to the southeast, as DR.. Nc,
Gee has shown was the case, and in
the battle royal which took place be
tween these two giants two channels
were carved out of the limestone, leav
ing Rock Island as a sort of buffer ter
ritory in between.
Black Hawk War.
At all events, it first became known
to Americans along about 1904, when
the Sac and Foxes coded their lands
along this part of the river. The
military advantages and strategic i'm
portance of the locality at once
caught the eye of the crafty white
man, and, as a result, Fort Armstrong
named in honor of the secretary OF
war of the time, was erected on the
side now occupied by the arsenal
Black Hawk, the chief of this tribe
refused, however, to ratify the treaty
saying that the chiefs who signed
away their birthright We're drunk al
the time, and. al the result of his re
fusal, and the Vaccinations of the
Prophet Elskwatawa, the brother o.
Tecumseh, a long and bloody war fol-
lowed, which terminated on Aug. 81
1882, with the capture of Black Hawk
and his sons and their detention in
Fortress Monroe.
A Famous Cave.
The war was ended and Black Hawl
had departed, but Rock Island contin
ued a leading history-maker of The
west. 1t attracted everybody and ev
erything. On the south of the islant
is a large and very curious cave
which the Indians had formerly helt
in W and generation, and it was here
that, according to local tradition, tn,
shades of the Indian warriors killed
in battle with the whites gathered
night to perform their war dance
Time went on, and the war whoop o
the Indians was silenced forever b,
the shrill whistle of the locomotive
and in the excitement attending thu
first railway enterprise beyond tn,
Mississippi people forgot about the
cove and it's ghostly inmates.
Engine Crosses River on the Ice.
In 1853 the Chicago Rock Island 6
Pacific railway was completed from
Chicago to the east bank of the river
opposite the island. There was then
of course, no bridge, and the engineer.
who continued the construction ant
extension of The road from the village
of Davenport on the west bank on to
ward the setting sun needed a locomo
tive and cars. How to get across the
river was the question. 1t was Febru
airy and the river was frozen over from
bank to bank, and after some discus
sion it was decided to bring over IN
IN the ice. A track was acpopdinoIx