Other Information

I announced I was considering a run for Dubuque County Board of Supervisors in March 2013 and formally announced in June 2013. My website for that, also hosted by MacHighway, is stewart4supervisor.com. Here on my professional website is another article about Dubuque’s Architectural History.

How Bluffs and Mississippi River influenced Dubuque’s Development
(Final Project – Final Draft) written for Geography 3373:
Changing Form of the City by R.R.S. Stewart, 2 May 2002

            The Dubuque Thunderbirds Hockey team is a member of the Minnesota Junior Hockey League. As such, it attracts players from all over the U.S.A. and abroad to come to Iowa. In the thunderbird’s hockey program, the players were asked “What do you think of Dubuque?”.  Interestingly enough for the purposes of this paper, many of their responses have to do with Dubuque’s lay-out. These are some of them (which player said them isn’t specified in the program); “Confusing with all the one way streets and so many hills.”, “Lots of one ways and sideways stoplights, but nice.”,  “Good organization, nice town and people.”, “Very spread out, scenic and nice downtown.”,  “Even with a population of 60,000, it still has a small town atmosphere.”,  “Seems like an older city.” These players have realized one very important determinate of Dubuque’s layout – the Bluffs. Dubuque was settled because of the Galena lead that could be harvested from its bluffs.

The American Heritage College dictionary has realized another important determinate of Dubuque’s layout – the river. “Dubuque, A city of E. IA. on the Mississippi R. opposite the IL.-WI border, settled in 1833, Pop.57,546.” (p.424, The American Heritage College Dictionary). Dubuque, Iowa, is situated almost exactly midway between St. Louis and St. Paul on the Mississippi river. The river carved the bluffs and made Dubuque a transportation center. Trying to figure out whether the limestone bluffs or the Mississippi river influenced Dubuque more is like asking whether the chicken or the egg came first.  I can’t talk about the bluffs without the river and vice versa. So instead of entering that debate, I will explore how the bluffs and the river influenced Dubuque’s development.

The first people to dwell in the Dubuque area were the Fox Clan and the Sac Clan of the Mesquakie tribe. The Fox had a village nestled along the banks of Catfish creek, south of the present day City of Dubuque. In 1785, Julien Du Buque paid his first visit to the area that would be named after him. (To save confusion, Julien Dubuque will be referred to as Julien and the city of Dubuque will be referred to as Dubuque.) Potosa, a woman of the Fox clan, discovered the lead mines that Julien received permission from her tribe to mine in 1788. To seal the deal, Julien married Peosta, daughter of Potosi, chief of Fox clan. Like Julien, Peosta and Potosi were memorialized in settlement names (Peosta, Iowa, near Dubuque proper, and Potosi, Illinois, near East Dubuque, Illinois.) Peosta also had a lake named after her that disappeared as the City of Dubuque grew. Julien convinced 10 Frenchmen/Creoles, to travel from Prairie Du Chien so they could help in his mines. In 1796, Julien received a land grant from Spain 9 miles deep along 21 miles of Mississippi. Julien and his companions built their dwellings near the mouth of Catfish creek. Today the area is a nature preserve called “the Mines of Spain”, near Mt. Caramel on the southernmost boundary of Dubuque. {See Map p.13, All maps and illustrations except for the pictures taken by me on page 17 and the very last map on page 26 are from Dubuque on the Mississippi.} . Julien would take lead and fur down river to St. Louis and winter there. After his death in 1810, Julien was buried at the base of a bluff near Catfish creek by the Fox clan, and his companions were driven away. The Sac clan, the Fox clan, and the Sioux tribe parceled up the mines among themselves.

Dunleith (now East Dubuque), Illinois, became settled by miners eager to cross into territory west of Mississippi. In 1830, a group of 30 to 40 miners, led by James L. and Lucius H. Langworthy, crossed the river to explore the vanishing remains of Julien’s settlement. Only the foundations of Julien’s settlement remained.  Unconnected to Julien’s settlement, they found a dog trot log cabin, but no one knew who built it.  On June 17, 1830, they drew up a Miner’s Compact, intending to squat. However, future president Zachary Taylor, commander of Ft. Crawford at Prairie Du Chien, drove the Langworthy group back across the river because of the Black Hawk war. In August, 1832, the Langworthy group and others, about 200 people total, crossed into Dubuque and again attempted to settle. In January, 1833, troops again came from Prairie Du Chien and ordered the squatters out of Iowa. The Squatters promptly moved to Islands in the middle of the Mississippi. In June 1, 1833, a purchase treaty was reached with Black Hawk allowing permanent Caucasian settlement in a strip 50 miles wide west of the Mississippi.

Squatters crossed back into Iowa as soon as they could after the purchase treaty. They pitched tents and built rough shanties next to their lead mines. Although people typically think of Iowa as treeless, the area along the Mississippi is heavily wooded.

“At first there were no fences, culverts or bridges – nothing but wilderness. Before the land was surveyed and legally put on the market, the settlers had no way of knowing where the township and section lines would be established, so they simply settled upon a piece of unoccupied land and went to work. The first task was to get as much ground broken as possible and planted. As soon as crops were in, a rail fence was built to keep away the forest animals. Then a house could be built – typically a log building, seven or eight feet high, with a roof of poles and hay. No metal was used. Even hinges were made of wood.”  My Old Dubuque, p.3

Dubuquers undertook some city planning efforts of their own  before surveyors arrived. A cholera epidemic in 1833 necessitated the establishment of a Grave yard outside the original settlement, where Jackson Park now stands. In 1834 a sheet was posted where people could read it, sign it, and pledge money to help build a Methodist-Episcopal church. The money was raised in a week and a simple log cabin Church, the first church of any denomination in Iowa, was built in a month. During the week the church building was used as a Public School and the site of the first district court in Iowa. Also in 1834, Bell Tavern, built partially of logs, and partially of lumber, was the first building to be built with lumber.

Dubuquers like to call their city “Little Rome” because Dubuque was built across seven hills. When Roman surveyors founded outposts, they laid down a N-S axis and an E-W axis and plotted around that. The United States has this inherited idea from the Romans that nature is anarchy and civilization is order. In Dubuque, surveyors squeezed a grid in between the bluffs and the river.  In July 1836, a U.S. Commission appointed by Congress commenced gridding Dubuque. Main Street was laid out 27 degrees west of North, making it more or less parallel to the line of the bluffs and the general course of the Mississippi.  Streets were 64 feet wide; Alleys were 20 to 30 feet wide. Some streets were made narrower because of topography and some were made wider to make them more functional. Blocks were 220 ft. by 256 ft. with the longer dimension in the northerly direction.  (p. 36, Heritage of Dubuque). Washington Park was left around the church bordered by Bluff St., Sixth St., Seventh St., and Locust St. The business district centered around Main and Second, while the rest of the area between Dodge, Bluff, eleventh, and Orange (Washington) was residential. Logically enough, Bluff St. is so named because it runs along the base of the bluffs. {To see the area of Dubuque originally settled by Squatters, how the Surveyor’s plot related to the bluffs, and Dubuque’s boundaries up to 1859, turn to page 14. The bluffs are the “fingers” along the left hand side.}

The U.S. Commission not only plotted the area where people already lived, they plotted lots from below Dodge to above Seventeenth, and the river’s edge to part way up the bluffs. The surveyors were smart enough to only extend the numbered streets up the bluffs that more or less corresponded to the hollows. The surveyors discovered that graves on the edge of Dubuque’s first grave yard were where they wanted to lay down Main St., Fifteenth St., and Iowa St. Consequently, the graves were moved. Instead of having their grid change along Mississippi’s edge, the Commission pulled the grid back from the River’s edge when it turned and made the grid end at a right angle.

Dubuque grew slowly until the preemption Act of 1841  reclassified the Miner’s Compact squatters as settlers and the Supreme Court’s ruled in favor of settlers and miners west of Mississippi in Chouteau v. Molony, 1853. (p.11 Heritage of Dubuque). In 1841, Dubuque’s charter was adopted. In 1847, Dubuque was incorporated. The Limits of Dubuque in 1842 covered 160 acres, 1/ eleventh of what it covered in 1857. By 1851, the Residential area had surrounded the grave yard, and no more bodies were allowed to be buried there. The City bought 10 acres from Davies, land speculator, at the end of Main St. In 1853 Lucius M. Langworthy donated 10 more acres to the cemetery. From 1856-1868 bodies were moved from the old city cemetery to this new City Cemetery. In 1859 Iowa street was extended from Fifteenth to Seventeenth St.. and Jackson Park was dedicated. (p.41, My Old Dubuque).

Residences also spread to the top of the Bluffs. In 1856, there were 125 residences on the top of the bluffs, built by Dubuque’s wealthier citizens. (p.50,My Old Dubuque). Only the rich could spare the time it took to get up down the bluffs. Horses could not pull carriages up the steeper streets, so quite often one had to take a longer, less steep route to get to the same location. Large plots of land on the bluffs were bought by speculators, and then sub-divided and sold. Consequently, a developer could lay out streets and sub-divide their property pretty much however they wanted. One of the most prominent land speculators was the Family Langworthy. They owned land from Bluff St. to Alpine St. and Dodge St. to University. They also owned a lot of Land along Kaufmann Avenue, originally called Langworthy Hollow because Lucius and Edward found their first lead strikes there.  {To compare how the grid plan of downtown differed from the streets following the curves of the bluffs, turn to pages 15 and 16.}

Most developers ended up laying out streets over the bluffs in modified grid patterns. When a grid pattern could be put in, they were, but when the terrain made grids to difficult, streets were laid out anyway they had to be in order to fit. One of the most interesting solutions to building on the bluffs can be found along Loras (when Fourteenth crosses Bluff it becomes Loras). Along Loras you’ll find two side streets side by side, separated by a wall. One looks like an alley as it goes behind the houses on Loras and then goes straight across the face of the bath. The other goes steeply up the side of the cliff and then across the face of the bluff to end up even with the tops of the houses located on the street below it. Another interesting solution is found on Madison Street, which connects Clark Dr. to Main. Along Madison St., the main floor of the houses will be the top floor, even with Madison St., while the back door and back yard are even with the base of the bluff that Madison climbs up. {Photographs taken by myself of these “Dubuqueisms” are on page 17}

“The existing thoroughfares of Dubuque may be said to be natural routes, casually developed over a long period of time, more from everyday causes than any very conscious planning for future needs.” Dubuque: Frontier River City

“Military road from Dubuque to Iowa City and the northern boundary of Missouri, 1839… one branch of the road came up Madden Hollow (Dodge Street) to Old South Dodge (Bryant Street) and moved along the ridge (Grandview Avenue) to join the other branch coming up Dirty Hollow (Southern Avenue). It continued south (Southern Avenue) across the  Catfish Creek to Rockdale and up the hill (Key West) and past the table mound. “ p.146, Dubuque on the Mississippi. {To see this military roads, turn to page 18)

Dubuque’s main thoroughfares were; Julien (now University Ave.), Fourteenth street (now Loras Boulevard), Seminary Street (now Clarke Dr.), Dodge St./Highway 20,  Kaufmann Ave., Southern, and Grandview. Loras, Dodge, and Kaufman follow natural ravines, twisting and winding their way through the city and the bluffs. Grandview, appropriately named, follows the backbone of the bluffs until it reaches Clarke, at which point in drops down into the ravines between the bluffs, letting Clarke command the bluffs’ backbone. Dubuque was also divided by ethnic areas, with “Little Dublin”  between Bluff and South Locust, while the German area of town was the bluffs and flats on the Northern side of town.  {To see these thoroughfares and ethnic areas, turn to page 22.}

It was estimated that in the 1840’s “…the annual value of lead sent from the Galena,[Illinois]-Dubuque region was more than double that of the Missouri River Fur trade and the traffic on the Santa Fe Trail.”(p.42 Heritage of Dubuque). {To see how Dubuque’s original town site related to the leadmines, turn to p. 19} From 1850 to the Civil War, Dubuque went from a simply being a frontier  mining town where traders had to share beds at what few local inns were available to a center for steam boating, flour milling, and lumbering, Dubuque prospered, gaining its nickname as Iowa’s “Key City”. During this decade, Dubuque had seven daily papers (one of which was in German). This time period also saw the installation of Gas street lights and Telegraph Lines, establishment of a Ferry to Illinois and Dubuque Female College, building of Mathias Ham House, Edward Langworthy Octagon House, and the Cathedral of Saint Raphael.  St. Raphael’s was designed in 1835 in a Gothic Revival style modeled on Magdalene College, Oxford. Its building in the 1850’s  “…represents an early exercise in town planning and urban design. At the time of its construction, the main steamboat dock was at Second and Main Street. Second Street was purposely build 90 feet wide to provide an ornamental vista of St. Raphael’s Cathedral at the head of Second Street. “ (p.54, Heritage of Dubuque).

The area of Mississippi next to Dubuque was quite a complicated area to get through. {Turn to page 19 for an overview of the maze of islands next to Dubuque.} In between the main channel and the outer slough were islands and in between the outer slough and the inner slough were Islands.  As early as 1836 there was talk of building a canal to connect the inner slough with lake Peosta. In 1838, the territorial legislature authorized a Ferry Between Dunleith (East Dubuque, Ill.) and Dubuque. In 1846, Gen.. A.C. Dodge convinced Congress to turn over the Islands in front of Dubuque to Dubuque. In 1844, $14, 500 was approved by Congress to make the Harbor able to accommodate steamboats during the river’s low water stage. Captain Joshua Barney of Topographical Bureau was placed in charge of making a cut to allow boats to pass from the main channel to the inner slough. This cut was named the “Barney Cut” after him. (Dubuque, Frontier River City). {To see Barney’s original surveys, turn to p. 20} In 1852, the “Waples Cut” was made at the base of Second Street. The Waples cut gradually evolved into a winter Harbor for steamboats. {To see the Waples cut, turn to page 21} In 1853, the George W. Jones dredge boat was constructed to keep the cuts clear and begin development on what would eventually become Dubuque’s Ice Harbor. Dubuque had a population of 6,634 and 333 new buildings in 1854. In 1855, 471 new buildings were built. In 1856, 750 new buildings were built. 1,000 buildings were planned for 1857, but not all of them were built because of a nation wide panic and depression. (Heritage of Dubuque).

From 1855-1857, the Dubuque Harbor Company and the Dubuque Harbor improvement company sold riverfront property in exchange for filling in the sloughs and extending Jones, Third, and Seventh Streets to the River Front. In 1859, Dubuque was declared a port of entry by Congress. The Customs offices typically only worked during the six months the river was open. From 1858 to 1866, money appropriated by congress was used to build a combination customs office, Post office, Internal Revenue Service office, and U.S. district court. Building took so long because of the civil war.

By 1860 the population had grown to 13,00 and by 1864 it was 15, 814. During the Civil War, Dubuque was a training center for Union soldiers. There was a camp located at Rhomberg Park, between the Ham House and Lake Peosta. A hospital was established there for wounded soldiers. Governor Franklin closed the camp in 1863 because he felt too many Dubuquers were complaining about the war disrupting River traffic. (Dubuque on the Mississippi ).  Boat traffic not only functioned to bring Union soldiers south, they brought confederate prisoners North to Dubuque.

In 1865, Dubuque built its first railroad bridge over the Mississippi . {For a drawing of this railroad bridge, turn to page 21} Work continued on it even during the winter. Dodge became the main route of Western expansion. It moves westward across the top of the Bluffs, dropping down into valleys, and rising up again as it moves toward the Western Edge of town.  As the flats expanded, Central Avenue became more of a main street for downtown than Main Street. The grid changed as it moved along the river. The grid of the Peninsula by the Ice Harbor and the grid of the area in between former lake Peosta and Eagle Point Park slant to Northeast. For the rest of the flats, the grid slants to the Northwest. The giant square of Linwood cemetery, established in 1863, is where the two grids meet. {To see a map of Dubuque’s expansion and major thoroughfares, turn to page 22. I’ve used a street car map from 1828 because I could find no other map showing Dubuque’s expansion beyond its  1859 limits (shown on page 14).}

From 1865-1870 additional railway connections west were built, and meat packing, brewing, and wagon building industries were established. In 1871, The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul railroad built their Milwaukee Shops in Dubuque. At one point, it employed 2,000 people, making it Dubuque’s largest employer for many years. Western Brewery operated a complex in Dubuque from 1847 through the 1890’s. In addition to a Brewery, it had an ice house, two residences, a beer hall, and a pagoda. Today this area is used for outdoor concerts. In the 1870’s and 1880’s woodworking industries developed in Dubuque.

In 1882, Dubuque received $20,000 from congress to finish dredging the ice harbor. In 1883, two dredges widened and deepened the Waples Cut to six feet below the water level. {To see the harbor enlargements made during this time, turn to page 23.} Between the 1880’s and 1940’s, Lake Peosta dried up and was filled in. The riverfront business property is still known as industrial Island even though it is no longer an island. In the 1890’s, the “North End”, the northern flats and “Eagle Point”, the northern bluffs, additions (close to Industrial Island) were incorporated. It is hard to talk about Dubuque’s expansion in the late 1800’s without mentioning the Fourth Street Cable Car / Fenelon Place Elevator.  It was built in 1882 by J.K. Graves, a businessman who was tired of the half hour drive it took to reach the top of the bluffs. If people outside of Dubuque have heard anything about the city, they have heard about “…the steepest and shortest railway in the United States and possibly the world.” (Dubuque Encyclopedia, p.163).  Graves wealthy neighbors eventually made use of the elevator as well. From 1887-1927, a group of Dubuquers operated a second elevator at Eleventh St. {To the location of the Cable Cars, turn to page 22}. In addition to short distance Cable Cars, Dubuque was a railroad hub for the St. Paul Railroad, the Illinois Central Railroad, the Bellevue Railroad, and the Milwaukee + Mississippi Railroad. Today, Dubuque is still a hub for two Commercial railroads, but passenger lines no longer pass through.

Through the twentieth century the rivers and the bluffs continued to influence Dubuque’s development. In the 1930’s Dubuque received Lock and Dam No.11. In the 1940’s the Ice Harbor was deepened again to accommodate modern riverboats. In the 1970’s Dubuque’s Ice Harbor received a flood wall. {To see Dubuque’s development of its riverfront from 1890 to 1868, turn to pages 24 and 25. Compare page 25 to page 20. Lake Peosta has become  a channel; All the sloughs have been filled in and the Islands attached to Downtown except for Ham’s Island; and three harbors have been created.} Dubuque is currently trying to implement a river discovery project to capitalize on the river.

Meanwhile, the city of Dubuque has continued to expand westward over the bluffs.  In the 1950’s and 1960’s, subdivisions broke up many farms on the Western outskirts of town, providing both new residential areas and new commercial areas.  JF Kennedy Road became the modern major traffic route for the West Side of town, but  like its predecessors, it follows the topography of the plateaus.  {To see a modern plan of Dubuque’s major streets, turn to page 26}

These Limestone Bluffs  and the curve of Mississippi encircle Dubuque. They not only caused Dubuque to have a mindset unique to the area, they also  caused Dubuque’s development to be a combination of organic and planned growth.

Bibliography

1. “Your Dubuque Thunderbirds Hockey Program”, 2001-2002 Season

2. “Dubuque”, American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition, c1993, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York

3. Childs, Chandler C., Dubuque: Frontier River City, edited by Robert R. Klein., copyright 1984 Research Center for Dubuque History, Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa.

4. Kruse, Len, MY OLD DUBUQUE: Collected Writings on Dubuque Area History, c. 2000; edited by Robert Byrne; foreword by Mike Gibson, Director , Center for Dubuque History, Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa;   338 p.  ill.

5. Lyon, Randolph W., DUBUQUE: the Encyclopedia, (presented by the First National Bank of Dubuque, with special thanks to the: Dubuque County Historical Society; Center for Dubuque  History at Loras College;  Carnegie-Stout Public Library),  by Randolph W. Lyon, c. 1991;  502 p.  ill;  Union-Hoermann Press, Dubuque, Iowa.

6. Peterson, William J., Mississippi River Panorama: Henry Lewis Great National Work, c. 1979; Clio Press, Iowa City, Iowa, 136p.

7. Sommer, Lawrence J., Heritage of Dubuque: an architectural View, illustrated by Carl H. Johnson Junior, first addition, c1975, First National Bank of Dubuque, Iowa.

8. Wilkie, William E., DUBUQUE on the Mississippi, 1788-1988, (presented by the First National Bank of Dubuque, with special thanks to the Dubuque County Historical Society, and to the Center for Dubuque History at Loras College), c. 1987;  505 p. ill maps ports;  Loras College Press, Dubuque, Iowa.

All maps and illustrations except for the pictures taken by me on page 17 and the very last map on page 26 are from Dubuque on the Mississippi.

9. Map on page 26 from Dubuque Soccer Club Website, no copyright given, http://www.dubuquesoccer.org/Maps.cfm#1