[I-19] The rapids named from their situation above the mouth of Des Moines r. have also been known as the Lower rapids, in distinction from those higher up about the mouth of Rock r. These formidable obstacles to navigation have been overcome by modern engineering skill, but Pike's curt notice of the channel is clearly recognizable. The river was bridged by the Wabash road between Hamilton and Keokuk, in 1869-70 (Act of Congr., July 25th, 1866); the town lock and chain are within a mile or so of the bridge. Then succeed the English, Lamalee, and Spanish chains, and the Upper chain at the head of the rapids. The distance is about 11 m. Sandusky, Ia., was located between the English and Lamalee chains; Nashville, Ia., at the Spanish chain; Solferino, Ia., above the last; at or near one of these last two is Galland, Ia.; and on the Illinois side is a place called Sonora. On that side Cheney cr. falls in at Hamilton, and higher up are two others, known as Golden's and Quarry Sugar, but which used to be called Wagoner's and Larry's; while on the Iowan side Price's cr. falls in at the middle lock, Lamalee's at Sandusky, and several smaller ones at various points. The railroad and canal hug the Iowan side. At the head of the rapids the river makes a sharp bend; in the concavity of this bend stands Nauvoo, Ill., originally a Mormon settlement; it used to be called also Commerce. This is the place where Mr. Ewing had his establishment when he entertained Pike; the latter charts it as "U. S. Agricultural Estabt." The Sac village opposite was on the site of the present town of Montrose, Ia. A large creek runs through this town. There are some islands at the head of the rapids, between Nauvoo and Montrose, one of which, No. 401 of the Miss. Surv. chart, is called Montrose. At the head of the bend, still opp. Nauvoo, is the lower end of Dobson's slough, which receives a stream charted by Nicollet and Owen as Sugar cr., but later dedicated to his Satanic majesty by the name of Devil's or Big Devil cr., called by Beltrami Manitou cr. Devil's isl. is the name of the large tract, nearly 4 m. long, which is isolated by Dobson's slough, certain sections of which latter are known as Big River and Potter's.
[I-20] James Wilkinson: see [elsewhere] for this letter, which formed Doc. No. 1, App. to Pt. 1. of the orig. ed. of this work. Pike's 5 or 6 m. takes him past Dobson's slough and Devil's or Sugar cr. and isl., and the sand-bar on which he camped is now represented by Niota isl., 2½ m. long, or one of the small ones close by. The locality is the well-known one of the city of Madison, or Fort Madison, seat of Lee Co., Ia. Opposite this city, in Hancock Co., Ill., are two little places, one called Niota, and the other Appannose (Nicollet), Appanoose (G. L. O. map), Appanooce (Miss. Surv. chart), etc. A certain creek which falls in by Niota and is known as Tyson's cr. seems to be the never-identified one which Lewis and Clark mapped in 1814 as Sand Bank cr.
A history of Lee Co., pub. Chicago, 1879, says that the city of Fort Madison was so called from the old fort and trading-post of that name. The author speaks of the tradition that this establishment was built by Zachary Taylor, when this distinguished general, afterward president of the United States, was a lieutenant in the army; and attempts to refute this tradition by an appeal to the War Department for the facts in the case. But unluckily, the information he derived from this source was erroneous; for the Hon. Geo. W. McCrary, then secretary of war, told him that the adjutant-general of the army reported to him (McCrary) that Fort Madison was erected by Pike in 1805. Whereas, besides imperishable renown, Pike erected nothing in 1805 but his stockade on Swan r., and various patriotic flag-poles. The difference between selecting or recommending a site for a fort, and building one on that site, is obvious at sight. But Pike did not even select or recommend this spot for a fort, the lowest one of several which he did pick out being at Burlington: see [next note]. Z. Taylor was a 1st lieut. of the 7th Infantry in 1808, appointed from Ky.; which fact, as far as it goes, supports the tradition. The Andreas Hist. Atl. of Ia. has it that the fort for which the town was named was built in 1808; evacuated and burned by hostile Indians, 1813 (qu. 1812?). On Monday, Aug. 4th, 1817, when Long visited the ruins of Fort Madison, there was nothing left but some old chimneys, a covert way leading from the main garrison to some sort of an elevated outwork in the rear, and a number of fruit-trees on the ground which had been a garden: see Minn. Hist. Soc. II., Part 1, 1860, 2d ed. 1890, p. 75. In the fall of 1832 one Peter Williams settled on the present site of the town. The old trading-house there was called Le Moine factory. The old fort stood close to the river, and as I judge within a third of a mile of the present State penitentiary.
[I-21] About 18 m., to a position above the mouth of Skunk r., a little below the Burlington bluffs; he calls it 5¼ m. to the locality he presently describes with particularity, and which will be recognized as the site of Burlington, seat of Des Moines Co., Ia. After passing Madison on his left, with Niota and Appanoose on his right, he goes up by Pontoosuc and Dallas, both in Hancock Co., Ill., and then has Henderson Co., Ill., on his right. Further up, on the left, Lee Co. is separated from Des Moines Co., Ia., by Skunk r. This is a large stream, whose present pleasant name translates the Indian word rendered Shikagua by Nicollet, and Shokauk by Featherstonhaugh; Lewis and Clark map it as Polecat r. Beltrami, 1828, calls it Polecat r. and River of the Bête Puante. Green Bay is a small place in Lee Co., on a sort of slough which discharges into the river behind Lead isl., and which is called Green bay. This is connected in some way, which for me remains occult, with a creek called by Nicollet Lost cr.; it is a part of the intricate waters between Skunk r. and that stream which runs through Madison past the State penitentiary, where the bridge that was built in 1887-88 strikes the Iowa side. Jollyville was a place on the same waters, but seems to have been lost like the creek. Some of the islands besides Lead, the present positions of which Pike passed, if not these islands themselves, are now known as Dutchman, Hog, Polk, Thompson, Peel, and Twin, the latter at the mouth of Skunk r. His camp I suppose to have been about on the spot where one Sauerwein used to keep his woodyard, about halfway between Twin isls. and the mouth of Spruce (or Spring) cr. This is nearly opp. the middle of the great island now called Burlington, formerly Big, being 7 m. long, separated from the Illinois mainland by Shokokon slough, on which there is or was a place called by this latter name. A number of creeks make into this slough, among them those called Dug Out, Honey (Camp cr. of Nicollet and Owen), and Ellison's. A place called Montreal started near Ellison's cr., but does not seem to have survived. What Pike maps as "Sand bank Creek," at a place he calls "Sand Bay," seems to be Dug Out cr., or the next one below, which falls into the slough behind Thompson's isl., near Dallas City.
[I-22] This is the prairie through which meanders Henderson r., 6 m. above Burlington. The Sac village was on its north bank. The prairie and the village are lettered on the map as per text; the river is shown there, without name; the Burlington bluffs are delineated, marked "Positions for a Fort." The present city was built across the mouth of Hawkeye cr., a rivulet which makes in above the steepest part of the bluff, where the Flint hills recede a little from the river; it extends to the larger Flint cr. or r., at whose mouth it may be said to be situated. Across the Mississippi is East Burlington, Ill., at the head of Shokokon slough; the bridge which the C., B. and Q. R. R. built in 1867-68 spans the river and connects the two places. There are numerous islands above Burlington, the principal of which are O'Connell's, Rush, and Otter. Above Henderson r. there is nothing of special note till we reach Oquawka, seat of Henderson Co., Ill., reckoned 13 m. by the channel above Burlington. Pike omits his customary mileages to-day, but did not get beyond Oquawka, which is at the head of the prairie on which he camped; for here begin some steep banks, known before and since Pike's day as the Yellow banks. He marks them on his map, and they are mentioned by the same name in Forsyth's narrative of 1819.
[I-23] We are not told which side of the river this was, and the sentence is otherwise ambiguous, as all streams hereabouts are branches of the river. We know he means a bayou or slough, by following which he expected soon to regain the Mississippi ahead of his boats, and I suppose that Huron slough, on the Iowa side, led him astray. The slough itself is not long, merely cutting off Huron and some smaller islands for four miles; but this receives Iowa slough, which meanders toward the river, and so would take Pike and Bradley away from the river if they followed it up. This supposition is strengthened by Pike's using the word "savannah," which with him means rather marsh or bog than prairie, and he would hardly have applied it to the better ground on the Illinois side if he had gone there and been misled by Henderson r. Moreover, he continues to camp on the west side, as he would naturally do after loss of the two men who went to find his dogs; and also he expected to recover the men at the place above where the hills first come down to the river, which is at Muscatine, Ia. He does not say who these men were; they were not recovered till Sept. 1st, at Dubuque.
[I-24] This mileage is excessive, as are all those hence to Rock Island or Davenport, the distance of which by the channel is 70 m. from Oquawka, though Pike makes it 92. Moreover, the distance from Oquawka to New Boston, directly opposite the mouth of the Iowa r., is only 18 m., and Pike remains below the Iowa r. to-day. What with sloughing it, losing his dogs, and waiting for his men, he did not get much beyond Keithsburg, Mercer Co., Ill., which we may safely take as to-day's datum-point. This is built under a bank at the mouth of Pope's cr., and so far answers the requirements of Pike's camp opposite it. The situation is in Louisa Co., Ia., but a little distance over the boundary of Des Moines Co. Excepting Keithsburg, no notable point is passed to-day. A place called Huron was started on the slough of that name, but it never came to anything. Huron isl. is called Thieves' isl. on some maps. The large one (No. 355) opp. Keithsburg, and crossed by the railroad, is separated from the Iowan side by Black Hawk slough.
[I-25] Pike delineates "Sand Bank" on his map directly opposite the mouth of Iowa r. This is the site of New Boston, Mercer Co., Ill. The bank comes immediately upon the river with a frontage of 2 m., and Edwards r. falls in at the foot of the bank, 3½ m. above Pope's r. At New Boston the Mississippi turns sharply, so that the mouth of Iowa r. is rather on the S. than W.; and the bank on which is the town recedes northward, leaving low ground between itself and the Mississippi, watered by the ramifications of Sturgeon bay, Illinois slough, Swan lake, etc. This is what Pike means by his "Sand-bank prairie on the E. side." As to that "marked Grant's prairie," I should observe that no such name appears on the map as published; Pike referred to his immense original draft in water-colors, now preserved in the War Department, and from which the small printed map was reduced with the omission of too many details. What he means by Grant's prairie is the lowlands on the Iowa side before you come to Muscatine, which is the point where the hills first reach the river-side. Compare Apr. 26th, 1806. Grant's prairie is now known as Muscatine isl., being virtually cut off by Muscatine slough, whose lower mouth is hardly 2 m. above the Iowa r., though the upper entrance is at Muscatine—a distance of some 18-20 m. At one point this slough dilates into a body of water which is now called Keokuk lake, but which was charted by Nicollet as "L. Maskuding or in the Prairie." Here are obviously the origin and meaning of the name "Muscatine." The town now so called was once known as Bloomington. I suspect that "Grant's" prairie in Pike may be intended for Grande prairie; thus Beltrami calls it Grande Prairie Mascotin, II. p. 196, and Forsyth has Grand Mascoutin. There was a place started by the name of Port Louisa on the Iowan side of the river, near one of the openings of Muscatine slough; but it seems to have disappeared after bequeathing the name to the county, whose seat is now Wapello. As to Pike's "28" miles to-day, that is best disposed of by observing that to-morrow he drags his boat "nine miles, to where the river Hills join the Mississippi," i. e., to Muscatine. So he camps on the Iowan side, a certain distance below Muscatine. We shall not be far out if we set him exactly on the boundary between Louisa and Muscatine cos., opp. the lower end of Blanchard's isl., behind the middle of which Copperas or Copper cr. falls in on the Illinois side.
The great Iowa r. should not be passed without remark. For the name in its extreme fluidity, see Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 20. Some still more singular forms of the word than those there noted reach us from the time when the French writers and cartographers used the figure 8 for the letters ou; so that "Iowa" was liable to appear as Ay8ay (Ayouay), or in some such form: Neill cites forms sing. and pl. as Aye8ias, Ayo8ois, Ayooues, Ayavois, Ayoois, Ayouez, Ayoes, Aaiaoua, to which I can add Aiavvi; another series of words flows from the introduction of J or j: thus Pike, early text, 1807, p. 5, has Jowa, and I have noticed also Ajoe, Jaway, Joway, Jowah, etc. Beltrami, 1828, has Yawoha, Yahowa, and Yawowa. This river-system waters a great portion of the State, on courses S., S. E., and E. Pike says elsewhere that in ascending it 36 m. you come to a fork, the right-hand branch of which is called Red Cedar r. Waiving any question of distance, this is correct; and moreover, Red Cedar is the larger of the two forks, though by a very unusual freak of nomenclature the united stream Iowa takes the name of the lesser fork. He further says that Red Cedar r. branches out 300 m. from its mouth; which triple forking is "called the Turkey's foot." This term seems to have lapsed; the situation is in Black Hawk Co., above Cedar Falls, and one of the turkey's toes is called Shell Rock r. The notable town of Cedar Rapids is lower down, in Linn Co. The confluence of Iowa r. proper with Red Cedar is at Fredonia, Louisa Co.; Pike's map represents this by the pitchfork-shaped object, though it is not lettered with any name. He marks a village of Iowas "about 10 miles up," on the "right" bank, i. e., on the right-hand side going up, left bank. Iowa r. presents the anomaly of a great river with nothing to speak of at its mouth (New Boston is across the Mississippi). "Iowa City" seems never to have got much beyond its original wood-pile, and a similar "city" which Nicollet charts by the name of Black Hawk would be hard to find now. There is, however, a little place called Toolsboro, under the hill on the left bank, 2 m. above the mouth of the Iowa.
[I-26] Pirogues: see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 4. Pike uses this form consistently. The most amusing variant of the word I have noticed occurs in Shea's Hennepin's Descr. Louisiana, Eng. tr., 1880, p. 156, where we read, "a number of parrakeets and about eighty cabins full of Indians," and an editorial note informs us that "the French printer put peroquets, but Margry's Relation gives the real word, 'pirogues,' 'canoes.'"