Black Hawk State Historic Site
Visiting Black Hawk State Historic Site | Rock Island, IL | March 2024
With the change of plant from La Salle to the Quad Cities came a change of pace. We would be here longer, but I would also be working less: I had two weekends off and a couple of fatigue days during our month here. Honestly, a much needed change of pace from the past month.
On our first weekend we decided to stay local to the Quad Cities and crossed the Mississippi to the town of Rock Island. We made our way over to Black Hawk State Historic Site, sitting on a bluff high above the Rock River. Here, the state preserves the site of the Sauk principle village of Saukenuk. In a very contested treaty, the site of Saukenuk, as well as most of what is now Illinois, was ceded to the United States in 1804. In the 1820’s and 30’s, when the US finally got around to claiming the land, the Sauk were divided on what to do. Neither faction believed the treaty that had given up the Illinois country was valid, but Keokuk knew that the American Expansion could not be stopped and resigned himself to live across the Mississippi in Iowa. Black Hawk, however, wished to oppose the Americans as he had done during the War of 1812.
In the Winter of 1831-32, among growing disturbances between the Upper Mississippi tribes, Black Hawk and a band of followers from several tribes crossed the Mississippi and reoccupied Saukenuk on their way to the Wisconsin Territory. This action and others set off what would become Black Hawk’s War which in turn would allow the US to claim even more territory in Iowa and Wisconsin as recompense for the War.
For our time here, we started at the museum high on the bluff and went for a hike, following the ridge up river before looping back around the base of the bluff. There were some odd ruins from the turn of the century when the land was used as an amusement park. Spring was definitely trying to show up, but it was still quite cold when the wind blew in off the river, and the trees were still quite bare. But otherwise the highlight for me was easily the statue of Black Hawk.
