CITY ISLAND

Photo courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/pages/You-know-you-grew-up-in-Dubuque-Iowa-if-you-remember/130170407077838

CITY ISLAND. The island that has played such an important role in the history of Dubuque was originally named for Mathias HAM who once owned the land. (1)

The western portion of the island was purchased by Henry L. STOUT who hoped to use it for farming. Attempts to make the area productive, however, repeatedly failed and he gradually sold his interest. (2) City governments purchased more and more of the island. (3) The dense brush, however, encouraged criminals to use it for their escapes; during PROHIBITION illegal whiskey was produced there. (4)

The possibility of creating a city park from the region was explored in 1900. A special committee was organized around 1900 to explore the property rights of the city to the old bed of Lake Peosta and to the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. This committee found two separate acts of the Iowa General Assembly. The first approved on March 3, 1860 and the other on April 4, 1896 granted to the City of Dubuque all the beds of lakes, sloughs and ponds of water in Sections 17, 18 and 19 of Township 89 North which are east of the west meandered line of the west shore of Lake Peosta. The area of the bed of the lake with that of the ponds and sloughs contained in the grant by the state was more than 250 acres. The proposed park's western boundary was to begin on the south side of the foot of 12th Street and run 300 feet forth of the foot of 7th Avenue in Hams's Addition. Every cross street from 12th to 7th Avenue would intersect with the proposed park which would be just over 1.5 miles long. It was proposed that a deep channel between 50-100 feet wide would be maintained fro Eagle Point to an outlet on the main river above 8th Street. Material dredged from the river would be used to fill sloughs on the island. (5)

Once large enough to provide a seasonal airport for Dubuque, Ham's Island in the 1930s was considered an industrial location. According to the comprehensive city plan (1929-1936), "the development of Ham's Island primarily for industrial purposes is linked up with the idea of bringing river transportation service further into the present industrial section of the city by the relocation, widening and deepening of the Lake Peosta channel."

In 1933 the Dubuque City Council purchased 162 wild and woody acres of the island for $10,000. Unemployed men, recruited by the Civil Works Administration during the GREAT DEPRESSION, leveled trees, ripped out stumps and slashed away underbrush. After extensive grading, two runways, each 2,600 feet long and 100 feet wide, were constructed of MACADAM and cinder surface. The new airport was reached by a road linking the site to the foot of East 16th Street.

Operations at the City Island airport began in June 1934, when two DUBUQUE AIRWAYS INC. planes were flown to the site from NUTWOOD PARK. With no hangars or gas tanks, planes had to be tied down at night. Nutwood Park's metal hangar was later dismantled and rebuilt at the new site; a new hangar with an office was constructed within one year. Electricity was supplied by a portable gas-powered generator. There were "His" and "Her" outhouses.

Business at the City Island airport was not brisk. Lewis Boxleiter, Collins' successor as airport manager, applied for a low-flying permit and inspected high transmission lines when foul weather prevented linemen from driving over snow-drifted roads. Each spring because of floods the planes had to be flown to high ground in Waterloo, Iowa, or Galena, Illinois. In 1938 sixty-four days of business at the City Island airport were lost due to flooding. The airport flooded from March 31 until April 17 in 1939. It was submerged again on April 28.

Flying instruction began in earnest in January 1940, with the start of the Civilian Pilots Training Program. After the start of WORLD WAR II, a new hangar was constructed. During the war, a Liberator bomber had problems and landed on the island. The plane, unable to take off, was dismantled and transported out of town on the Milwaukee Railroad. (6) The navy's objection to the city's inadequate airport led the Chamber of Commerce to conduct a survey as a first step in establishing a first-class airport for the city. The City Island airport was closed in September 1948. The Dubuque (Regional) Municipal Airport was dedicated October 24, 1948.

The Dubuque Sports Bowl replaced the airport on the north side of the island. Although the track was little more than a "little round circle," races were held every Saturday night until the track closed in the 1960s. John R. RILEY remembered local police blocking off a road on the island so that they could test their race car.

The island was also used as the city's landfill. In January 1950, the city began the "land fill" method of rubbish disposal. This was described at the time by Dr. Albert J. Entringer, city health director, as "the major city part of a recently started rodent control program." (7) Under the system, there was only one legal dump in the city--near the east end of 16th Street. Instead of simply dropping rubbish at a site and then burning the paper, a trench 7'-8' deep and 12'-15' wide was dug. When the trench was filled, a grader flatten the material and then covered it with two feet of dirt to prevent rats from reaching the rubbish. (8) The old dump, west of the island, was leveled and covered. In the 1950s and 1960s wetlands were commonly used for dumps. Filling in marshes was seen as a means of providing a place for garbage and land reclamation. Sand dredged from the channel was used to cover the refuse.

Following WORLD WAR II, many of the nation's industries began constructing branches across the United States. Dubuque officials wanted a chance to attract this business. With the approval of a $2 million referendum in 1955, dredging began to fill in sloughs and raise the land level above flood stage. In 1956 the DUBUQUE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE also began a special assessment to increase its business recruitment fund. (9)

The first success story came in August 1956 with HARNISCHFEGER CORPORATION announcing it had purchased 74-acres with the intention of building a $10 million plant employing 800 workers. By 1969 more than 27 plants were located in the INDUSTRIAL PARK. (10)

By the early 1970s, the federal government's support of such practices was beginning to change. The use of City Island as a landfill ended in August, 1976 when the dump on the island was closed and the DUBUQUE METROPOLITAN LANDFILL west of the city along Highway 20 was opened.

In 1983 questions of whether the ground used as a landfill was contaminated were raised in the city council. No records had been kept as to what materials had been buried. Samples of soil were studied at Iowa State University and LEAD levels were not found to be of concern. (11)

Use of the island for recreation occurred at the same time. Racing through mud may have been fun for many teenagers, but others used the relative flat area for more profitable pursuits. The POWERS AND RILEY RACING TEAM was so successful that the local police blocked off traffic on the island so that the racers could test their latest innovations.

On March 24, 1980, the Dubuque City Council renamed City Island in memory of Chaplain Aloysius SCHMITT. The name, Schmitt Island, had been lobbied for by fifty-four civic leaders. Lobbying by the Chaplain Schmitt Park Committee began soon after the announcement that the city planned a softball-baseball complex on the island where a memorial to Schmitt stood.

In 1983 the 217-acres provided 1,308 jobs and %563,000 in local property taxes. The land was assessed at more than $15 million. (12)

In 2010 the land was the site of the MILLER RIVERVIEW PARK, DUBUQUE GREYHOUND PARK AND CASINO,MCALEECE SPORTS COMPLEX, VETERANS MEMORIAL PLAZA, and the MYSTIQUE COMMUNITY ICE CENTER. (13) The same year Dubuque City Manager Michael VAN MILLIGEN estimated that businesses on the island generated an estimated $7 million to $8 million in revenue for the city.

Photo courtesy: City Plan

On July 21, 2014 the city council approved a 54-page document for future developments of the island. The planning process had begun earlier in the year when the Cunningham Group was chosen to identify opportunities on the city-owned property. The Group announced that the city objectives were best realized by dividing the area into three sections--Island Resort, Lake Peosta Recreational Channel and the Marina Village. The Group did not recommend any flood protection upgrades citing flood walls and levees would cause access problems. (14)

In December 2015 a nine-person committee of DUBUQUE RACING ASSOCIATION board members, local governmental officials, and representatives from MYSTIQUE CASINO was announced to consider options to improve the island. (15)

The Dubuque City Council approved a planned unit development rezoning on the Chaplain Schmitt Island leading to changes approved in a 2014 master plan. The master plan shows the island split up into three sections that would boast more walking trails, more recreational opportunities, and more retail. (16)

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Source:

1. "Lake Peosta Dredging Due to Start Next July," Telegraph Herald, May 8, 1955, p. 21

2. Kraske, Steve. "Dubuque Industrial Park Rose From Notorious Swamp," Telegraph Herald, June 26, 1983, p. 33

3. "Lake Peosta Dredging..."

4. Kraske

5. "City Council," The Dubuque Herald, February 24, 1900, p. 7

6. Shaffer, James L. and Tigges, John. Dubuque: The 20th Century, Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing Company, 2000, p. 98. Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZvllAMUoTP8C&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=City+Island+%28dubuque%29&source=bl&ots=SqBaJTVCts&sig=t27nbSWFHMGP82__wrYctQmojcY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=77H2U6u5MoKnyAT_2IG4Aw&ved=0CGcQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=City%20Island%20%28dubuque%29&f=false

7. "City Buries Garbage in Rat War," Telegraph Herald, January 22, 1950, p. 17. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=aEyKTaVlRPYC&dat=19500122&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

8. Ibid.

9. Kraske, "Dubuque Industrial Park Rose From Notorious Swamp"

10. Ibid.

11. Krase, Steve. "Second Test Clears Schmitt Island Soil," Telegraph Herald, September 13, 1983, p. 2

12. Kraske, "Dubuque Industrial Park Rose From Notorious Swamp"

13. "Dubuque Honors Chaplain Killed on December 7, 1941." KCRG.com. Online: http://www.kwwl.com/story/16214103/first-catholic-chaplain-to-die-in-wwii-from-dubuque

14. Jacobson, Ben. "Council OKs Plan for Island." Telegraph Herald, July 22, 2014, p. 1

15. Montgomery, Jeff, "Lynch to Lead Schmitt Island Makeover," Telegraph Herald, December 16, 2015, p. 3A

16. Hanson, Brad. "Changes in the Works for Dubuque's Chaplain Schmitt Island," KWWL.com. April 7, 2017, Online: http://www.kwwl.com/story/35094101/2017/4/7/changes-in-the-works-for-dubuques-chaplain-schmitt-island