a commercial industrial network pearl of
the Mississippi and watermelon capital
Muscatine is situated
on a series of bluffs and hills at a west-south bend in the Mississippi River.
The river-bend gives the city roughly 260 degrees of riverfront with two creeks
flowing into the Mississippi in downtown Muscatine. From the bluffs there is a
beautiful view of the town below and of the Mississippi for miles up and
down. Located 25 miles (40 km) from
the Quad Cities, 38 miles (61 km) from Iowa City and 68 miles
(109 km) from Cedar Rapids, Muscatine is part of a larger community whose
residents commute for work.
Muscatine Island is home to working-class
neighborhoods and industrial areas
Transport Muscatine
is located along two designated routes of Iowa's Commercial-Industrial Network;
Highway 61 serves as a major agricultural-industry route to the south from Burlington
to Muscatine, where it becomes a heavy-industrial and major commuter route to
the northeast between Muscatine and Davenport; highway 61 serves as a shortcut
for traffic from northeastern Missouri and southeastern Iowa to the Quad
Cities, Chicago, and points beyond. Iowa 92 provides access to the Avenue of
the Saints to the west and western Illinois via the Norbert Beckey Bridge to
the east.
History Muscatine
began as a trading post. The name
may have been derived from the Mascoutin Native American tribe who lived along
the Mississippi in the 1700s. From the 1840s to the Civil War, Muscatine had
Iowa's largest black community; fugitive slaves who traveled the Mississippi from
the South and free blacks who had migrated from the eastern states.
Mark Twain lived here during the summer of
1855 while working at the Muscatine
Journal
Town Slogans include
Pearl of the Mississippi and Pearl Button Capital of the World, referring to
when pearl button manufacturing by the McKee Button Company was a significant
economic contributor and Weber & Sons Button Co was the world's largest
producer of fancy freshwater pearl buttons harvested from the Mississippi
River. Muscatine is also known as the Watermelon Capital of the World, reflecting
the agricultural and rural nature of the area.