This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
In 1856, Rock Island became a battleground in the transportation wars. In May of that year, the tracks of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad spanned the river here on the first bridge ever to cross the Mississippi River. Steamboat men were unhappy; they did not relish the competition. We were here first, they said.
Days after the bridge opened, it was hit, accidentally or deliberately, by a small steamboat, and damaged beyond use. The battle ended up in the Supreme Court which ruled that railroads had a right to bridge the river. For the steamboat, it was the beginning of the end; bridges soon stitched the Mississippi like a crazy quilt.
There's more to it. Beneath this skirmish between modes of transportation lay a deeper conflict in the very soul of most Americans. We romanticize the small but are in awe of the big. We love the self-sufficient individual who can fend for himself—the cowboy, Davey Crockett, Huck Finn. At the same time, we thrill to the power of the giant corporation, the empire builders who subdued a continent. Small is beautiful, but when size and power talk, we listen. We even argue back and forth over whether we want our government large or small. We wax nostalgic over the Mom and Pop store that used to be in our neighborhood, but we shop in the megamall.
Steamboat men were the Moms and Pops of the 19th century—individual entrepreneurs who owned a boat or two and took their turns at the wheel—every boat in competition with every other boat. They were no match for the corporate railroad empires whose funds from thousands of investors allowed them to control rates and drive steamboats aground.
The battle on this island was only another version of David and Goliath: a version of similar battles between the small family farm and agribusiness, between the department store and the discount house, between the local cafe and the fast food chains.
If someone ever establishes a Museum of Mom and Pop, the steamboat will be there.
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
