View of Vandruff Island from Black Hawk Tower
Vandruff’s Island lies just outside Rock Island’s border, with this view from Black Hawk’s Watch Tower being enjoyed by thousands through the decades. This postcard, from the Augustana College Library … [ Continued
Model T Touring Car – Rock Island to California
Second Avenue & 14th Street Sometimes there’s a postcard that allows our imagination to play. This is one such card. It was hard to identify, but there were clues. First, … [ Continued
Black Hawk Watch Tower Amusement Park
Black Hawk Road near 17th Street Here is a peek at Rock Island’s own homegrown amusement park. Like Chicago’s Riverview, New York’s Coney Island, and the much later Disneyland, the … [ Continued
Rock Island County Tuberculosis Sanitarium
2122 25th Avenue The plague of tuberculosis, usually called TB, is all but forgotten, thanks to modern antibiotics. As recently as the early 20th century, it was the leading cause … [ Continued
