Roald Tweet
Writer and Narrator of 'Rock Island Lines'Beginning 1995, historian and folklorist Dr. Roald Tweet spun his stories of the Mississippi Valley to a devoted audience on WVIK. Dr. Tweet published three books as well as numerous literary articles and recorded segments of "Rock Island Lines." His inspiration was that "kidney-shaped limestone island plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River," a logical site for a storyteller like Dr. Tweet.
It was from Rock Island’s rich heritage that Dr. Tweet spun his histories, biographies and "stretchers." Among his favorite topics were railroads and riverboats, which he combined on a CD in celebration of the Grand Excursion in 2004. "Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet" received awards from the Illinois Historical Society as well as the Towner Award from the Illinois Humanities Council.
Dr. Tweet was professor emeritus, retired from the Augustana College English department, where he was professor and Conrad Bergendoff Chair in the Humanities. A writer and radio personality, Dr. Tweet was also an accomplished woodcarver and whittler.
Dr. Tweet left us in November of 2020, but his legacy lives on. You can hear many of his Rock Island Lines in podcast form here and also in a forthcoming book from WVIK and East Hall Press.
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Newspaper editors are almost as apt as other folks to change their minds when a better idea comes along. Here's a local…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.On May 10, 1823, at about noon, a small sternwheel steamboat drew within sight of Fort Armstrong at the western tip of…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.A while back I told you about a local professor whose grand imagination represents the pinnacle of professor-dom. I'm…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Fourteen miles upstream from Rock Island at the head of the Rock Island Rapids, sits the small town of LeClaire, Iowa,…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Few people around Rock Island had ever seen a downtown die. Since Midwest towns began to sprout up in the 19th century,…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Recently I saw an announcement for one of those motivational workshops titled "Be the engine of your life, not the…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.In almost any city near Rock Island, residents can walk you through their neighborhoods and name the houses: there's…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Rock Island sits almost in the center of a sea of grass that once covered much of the American heartland. The story of…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.This past winter an unusually large number of crows have come to the downstream tip of Rock Island each morning to…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.It may have been the oldest hotel in North America. Unlike most hotels, it improved with age. For Upper Mississippi…