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7 CORALVILLE DAVENPORT

to

Credit Island and the
Mississippi River

Just beyond the City of Davenport, your dip-
ping point of the ride, lies Credit Island. Credit
Island is a geologic feature in the Mississippi
River resulting from the river’s mighty erosional
and depositional forces. Shortly after the waning
of the last ice age, when the Mississippi River
was a series of braided channels dominated by
sands and gravels, its character began to change.
As flow rates decreased and sediments changed,
islands became composed of thick sand depos-
its covered with thick deposits of fine-grained This island was in private hands until the city

flood sediments creating what we see today. of Davenport purchased it in 1918 for use as a
Credit Island is one of the larger islands in this city park. The island supported a variety of rec-
stretch of the Mississippi, containing a bedrock reational activities including a golf course and a
base and geomorphic features such as sloughs popular swimming beach. The City of Davenport
and abandoned channels with ridge and swale is currently revising the master plan for the fu-
topography. ture improvement for the island.
The island appears to have been a stable
landform since the middle Holocene, or for
roughly the past 7,800 years. Early collectors
found hundreds of artifacts as well as habitation
sites. Many of these recovered artifacts were D ay 7 Route through Iowa City
described as “beautifully ornamented.” Archaeo-
logical investigations on the island documented
Middle- and Late Archaic-aged sites as well as
Woodland period occupations.
Credit Island gained its name during the early
1800s from Euro-American traders who set up
shop and gave the Native Americans “credit” for
food and imported goods. Credit Island was first
documented by name only two years after the
earliest trading post was established in 1814.
The island was found to be an excellent place for
Native Americans and Euro-Americans alike to
stop for supplies, repairs, or rest prior to continu-
ing their travel on the Mississippi. Credit Island
has the notoriety of also being the location of a
battle during the War of 1812.