Battle of Credit Island

Situated along the Mississippi River just southwest of Davenport, Iowa, and part of the Quad Cities region, Credit Island takes its name from a practice tied to the North American fur trade, when the site served as a trading post. Traders there extended credit to those who promised future delivery of hides and skins, and this arrangement gave the island its lasting name. Recognition of its historical significance came on February 3, 1999, when it earned a place on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties.

Modern times

When the two hundredth anniversary of the fighting arrived in 2014, attention toward the old battlefield surged again, prompting a research effort aimed at pinpointing exactly where the combat on the island had taken place.

These days, the island functions as a 420-acre (1.7 km2) park run by Davenport Parks and Recreation. Visitors can find a disc golf course alongside fields set up for rugby, soccer, baseball, and softball. The grounds also offer picnic shelters, spots for fishing, and a trail for cyclists. Beyond recreation, the island regularly hosts public gatherings and draws people who come simply to take in the scenery or watch eagles.

Back in May 2010, Davenport secured funding from the State Historical Society of Iowa to carry out an archaeological survey of one of the islands dotting the Mississippi along the Iowa side.

Two years later, in 2012, crews began building a bridge along the island's western edge, meant to connect the Mississippi River Trail bike path with Concord Street in Davenport.

Then, on May 2, 2013, fire broke out at the Credit Island Lodge. Repairs and restoration work brought the lodge back by 2015.

Other names for Credit Island

Government cartographers settled on Credit Island as the formal designation for this stretch of land almost from the moment Illinois entered statehood, and the 1838 map reproduced here confirms that early usage. Yet the island's story did not stop with that first label. As ownership shifted and successive proprietors sought to draw visitors for leisure and amusement, a whole string of alternate names attached themselves to the place over the decades.

Around 1868, John and Dorothea Offerman, parents of four sons at the time, left behind their farm situated between Slopertown Road and Harrison Street northwest of Davenport, Iowa, in order to acquire the island outright. They promptly rechristened their new property Offerman's Island. Records from 1894, specifically the county land ownership maps, still listed John Offerman as holding title to what had once been Credit Island. A survey conducted by the Mississippi River Commission, dated August 7, 1895, likewise labeled the land Offerman's Island.

Administratively, Offerman's Island fell within Rockingham Township, located in Scott County, Iowa. Its history of names ran even deeper, since prior to the Offerman purchase people had already called it Suburban Island, Grand Island, and Manhattan Island at various points. Ownership changed again in 1901 when Claus Kuehl paid $22,500 to acquire it, and two years later, in 1903, the property took on yet another identity as The Grand Isle.

A fresh set of private owners took possession in 1904, at which point the island became known as Suburban Island, a name inspired by the rail line that connected to it. In the years before World War I, people flocked there for swimming and athletic recreation. Eventually, in 1918, the city of Davenport purchased the land and organized a contest to settle on a permanent title once and for all; Credit Island emerged as the decisive favorite among entrants. Over time, what had been picnic grounds and swimming areas gave way to a golf course.

The broader amusement scene along the river blossomed during the 1890s, with parks springing up at Campbell's Island, Prospect Park, and Black Hawk State Park across the water in Illinois, while Suburban Island and Schutzen Park served the same purpose on the Iowa shore.

Following the city's 1918 acquisition, Davenport Park Board began keeping formal meeting minutes, and these records make no reference whatsoever to any amusement park, suggesting it had already disappeared by that point. Among the attractions the island once hosted was a Figure 8 roller coaster, standing from 1905 until some undetermined closing date, and evidence indicates the broader amusement park itself persisted until at least 1917.