This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.

This Roald Tweet on Rock Island.

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island. The descendants of the Sauk and Meskwaki Indians who once lived around Rock Island have joined other Native American groups in protesting the University of Illinois's use of Chief Illini as the mascot for its football team. They say it perpetuates ugly stereotypes.

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island. Twelve-year-old George Merrick and his family saw the Mississippi River for the first time at Rock Island in 1854. They were one of a flood of families heading for new territory in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Merrick went to work on steamboats, beginning as a pantry boy and moving on to apprentice engineer, second clerk, cub pilot, and finally a distinguished career as a river pilot.

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island. To the passengers resting in their staterooms, as well as to the children in towns along the river, the Mississippi steamboat seemed the very essence of romance. All was larger than life, from the gingerbread decks piled four high, to the great red paddle wheels pushing the boat up the channel, to the opulent meals in the grand salon.

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island. Memo: To the two tourists who lost their way last Thursday on the way to one of the gambling boats and found themselves standing on the levee right by the real Mississippi River, holding their noses.

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island. No steamboat stop on the Upper Mississippi has ever been as filled with the glory of flags and songs as a small landing below a gentle rise on the east edge of Davenport, Iowa. There, in August of 1861, Union troops opened Camp McClellan as a collecting point for Iowa volunteers.

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island. Had the good citizens of the United States known about Rock Island City in 1836, they might not have been so eager to elevate the public image of the great orator, Daniel Webster, from politician to '"statesman."

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island. I have finally figured out why no one has remarked on my moral growth over the years. I blame the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Inadvertently, I adopted the same methods to improve myself that the Corps has used to improve the Upper Mississippi and make it safe for navigation.