This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
It’s only fitting that the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, being a military unit, should supplement their daily care of the locks and dams on the Mississippi River with a small war every so often.
The Corps has found a perfect enemy close at hand: the hundreds of Upper Mississippi River islands sprinkled between St. Louis and St. Paul. Islands whose names tell their history: Bogus Island, Willow Island, Bell and Hail Islands, Jonas Johnson Island, Goose Island, Bikini Beach, Enchanted Island. Places with names like that, it's hard not to want them for yourself.
Before they were discovered by the Corps of Engineers, these islands were self-contained kingdoms, accessible only by small boats or crude causeways. Some were so small that a single family had to be mayor, postman, police force, and garbage collector. Others, like Campbell's Island, were large enough to house a whole community of small homes.
In 1930, the Engineers decided to take over the islands—the smaller ones, at least. The larger ones had too many taxpayers to risk losing. There was a handy weapon close by: the recently authorized nine-foot channel on the Mississippi, and its locks and dams. Simply elevating the water level a few feet made life impossible for many island dwellers by flooding their islands. The Engineers generously agreed to buy these islands, and all but a few hardy souls sold out.
Island dwellers who survived the locks and dams found themselves tangled in lease agreements, held by the government. Islanders found they could not transfer their leases to anyone else. Long-term leases were not renewed at the end of 99 years.
Today, there are pockets of resistance on only a handful islands, river rats holding on to their leases, waiting for the next invasion.
The Island Wars have a bright side or two. Casualties have been minimal, and there have been no fatalities. And, considering that the battlefields have all been surrounded by water, one would have to say that it's been one of the cleaner wars in our history.
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by the Scott County Regional Authority, with additional funding from the Illinois Arts Council and Augustana College, Rock Island.
