This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
What a great state, that Illinois. When she decides to move, nothing gets in her way. Certainly not Mother Nature. Not even common sense.
Illinois did not wait long to take action. In 1821, three years after becoming a state, the Illinois Legislature approved a plan for an Illinois and Michigan Canal connecting the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to Lake Michigan. Although the I and M Canal was not completed until 1848, the mere thought of it fueled a land boom that spread to neighboring states. Overnight, Chicago rose from a small village to a major city. Eastern speculators invested in dozens of paper cities, sight unseen. Next door, in Indiana, enough lots were sold to house the entire population of the United States.
By 1834, the enthusiasm reached distemper proportions in the Illinois Legislature. Legislators enacted a system of internal improvements which included 1,300 miles of railroads crossing the state in all directions, supplemented by hundreds of river and canal projects. To hurry things up, all projects were to start at both ends at the same time. The few Illinois counties without projects were given $200,000 to divide up as a consolation prize. For the improvements themselves, the Legislature authorized $12,000,000.
Rock Island's part of the plan included a system of canals at the shallow many-channeled mouth of the Rock River in order to make it commercially navigable. Rock Island was about to become prosperous.
Three years later, following the national financial panic of 1837, Illinois sobered up. With a state population of some 480,000, and only six small cities—Chicago, Alton, Springfield, Quincy, Galena, and Nauvoo—twelve million was a staggering debt.
Work was abandoned across the state, with part of a canal here and some dredging there, and no grand system of railroads. Not one project had been completed.
By most accounts, the final score was Mother Nature, 3; common sense, 2; the State of Illinois, 0.
Rock Island Lines is supported by grants from the Illinois Humanities Council, the Illinois Arts Council—a state agency—and by Augustana College, Rock Island.
