Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
EAGLE POINT
EAGLE POINT. Site of popular park. The naming of the hill on which EAGLE POINT PARK is located goes back to 1828-1829. A man discovered an eagle's nest in a tree near the town of Dryden, New York, east of Ithaca. The tree was cut down, and the young eagles were captured.
One of the eaglets was given to Mr. Roswell Randall, a prominent merchant in Courtland Villa, New York, who carefully raised the bird over the next two or three years. Randall kept the magnificent bird caged along the walk leading to his mansion. He later gave the bird to a neighbor, Mr. William Bassett, a local engraver and silversmith.
On the Fourth of July 1831, Bassett released the bird after riveting around one of its legs a silver clasp that read," To Henry Clay, Louisville, Ky., from Wm. Bassett, Courtland Villa, Courtland County, N.Y." On July 11, 1831, according to a story that appeared in western newspapers, a large bald eagle was shot by a Native American on a towering bluff on the western shore of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. The eagle, measuring an immense seven feet three inches from wing-tip to wing-tip carried the silver band attached by Bassett in New York. Since that date, the site of the eagle's death has carried the name Eagle Point.
In 1837 the area was laid out as town established by Mathias HAM, Thomas McCraney, F. K. O'Ferral, and John Foley. The site became a center of business activity. The area was the home of BOAT BUILDING, the EAGLE POINT FERRY and the EAGLE POINT LIME WORKS.
Below the Point and near where the Dubuque Municipal Swimming Pool was constructed in 1936 was the Eagle Point beach. A popular recreation spot on hot summer days, the area was normally packed with youth who were often guarded by Oran H. PAPE who easily swam to work from a cottage in Wisconsin. Pape was also known to dive into the river from the Iowa-Wisconsin Bridge just upstream from the beach. The city-run beach had no admission charge, but there was a small rental for bathing suits. In 1924 members of the committee in charge of he municipal beach at Eagle Point promoted a "Boost the Bathing Beach" program to encourage swimming. (Photo Courtesy: http://www.dubuquepostcards.com)