When the writer first visited this most beautiful Island in the
Mississippi river, then and now known as Rock Island, the ground on
which the triplet cities of Davenport, Rock Island, and Moline now
stands, was covered with prairie grass, and apparently a sterile waste
as regards to the two former, whilst the latter was principally covered
with timber. Now how changed! Then the site of Davenport was claimed to
be the most beautiful on the west bank of the Mississippi, between St.
Paul and St. Louis by Black Hawk and his confreres, who had traveled
up and down the river in canoes, whilst his judgment was confirmed by
thousands of passengers who viewed it from steamboats in after years.