Concept

Keokuk (Iowa)

Résumé
Keokuk ˈkiːəkʌk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk chief Keokuk, who is thought to be buried in Rand Park. It is in the extreme southeast corner of Iowa, where the Des Moines River meets the Mississippi. It is at the junction of U.S. Routes 61, 136 and 218. Just across the rivers are the towns of Hamilton and Warsaw, Illinois, and Alexandria, Missouri. Keokuk, along with the city of Fort Madison, is a principal city of the Fort Madison-Keokuk micropolitan area, which includes all of Lee County, Iowa, Hancock County, Illinois and Clark County, Missouri. Situated between the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers, the area that became Keokuk had access to a large trading area and was an ideal location for settlers. In 1820, the US Army prohibited soldiers stationed along the Mississippi River from having wives who were Native American. Dr. Samuel C. Muir, a surgeon stationed at Fort Edwards (near present-day Warsaw, Illinois), resigned his commission rather than leave his Indian wife and crossed the river to resettle. He built a log cabin for them at the bottom of the bluff, and became the area's first white settler. As steamboat traffic on the Mississippi increased, more European Americans began to settle here. Around 1827, John Jacob Astor established a post of his American Fur Company at the foot of the bluff. Five buildings were erected to house workers and the business. This area became known as the "Rat Row". One of the earliest descriptions of Keokuk was by Caleb Atwater in 1829: The village is a small one containing twenty families perhaps. The American Fur Company have a store here and there is a tavern. Many Indians were fishing and their lights on the rapids in a dark night were darting about appearing and disappearing like so many fire flies; the constant roaring of the waters, on the rapids the occasional Indian yell, the lights of their fires on the shore, and the boisterous mirth of the people at the doggery attracted my attention occasionally while we were lying here.
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