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.It was going to be the grandest, longest, most impressive parade ever held in the world—or at least in Moline and Rock…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as Karl Marx claimed, so is the road to success. Sometimes, it’s…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.If you have ready Huckleberry Finn you may have questioned why the slave Jim ever bothered to escape from Hannibal,…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.If history is any witness, it doesn't seem possible to have a garden without a serpent lurking about. That was the case…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.One thing you can say about those Minnesotans is, they're dependable. If they push your outhouse over on Halloween,…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.For those restless Rock Islanders who might have felt cooped up after a long hard winter below the Mississippi River…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.When the builders of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad finally crossed the Mississippi River to Davenport in 1856,…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.When a twenty-eight-year-old, up-start lawyer named David C. Cloud decided to end gambling in the small frontier town…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.I'd be interested in hearing from those of you who don't believe in ghosts. Just what do you think happened on that…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.If the Missouri War of 1839 counts for anything, the small adjacent villages of Rockingham and Davenport, Iowa, can…