The Des Moines Rapids between

Nauvoo, Illinois Nauvoo ( ; from the ) is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States, on the Mississippi River near Fort Madison, Iowa. The population of Nauvoo was 950 at the 2020 census. Nauvoo attracts visitors for its historic importance and its ...

and

Keokuk, Iowa Keokuk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States, along with Fort Madison. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk chief Keokuk, who is ...

Hamilton, Illinois Hamilton is a city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,951 at the 2010 census, a decline from 3,029 in 2000. The city is located directly across the Mississippi River from Keokuk, Iowa. Hamilton is the largest city in ...

is one of two major rapids on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

that limited Steamboat traffic on the river through the early 19th century. The rapids just above the confluence of the

Des Moines River The Des Moines River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwestern United States that is approximately long from its farther headwaters.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe Na ...

were to contribute to the Honey War in the 1830s between

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

and

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

over the

Sullivan Line The Sullivan Line originally marked in 1816 forms three quarters of the border between Missouri and Iowa and an extension of it forms the remainder. The line was initially created to establish the limits of Native Americans in the United States ...

that separates the two states. Various attempts to make the river navigable started in 1837 when a channel was blasted through the rapids by

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

team led by Robert E. Lee. A canal around the rapids was built in 1877. It is now obliterated by Lock and Dam No. 19. The other major rapids barring traffic on the Mississippi is the Rock Island Rapids. The Mississippi in its natural state widens from to in width at Nauvoo as it drops over over shallow

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

rocks to the confluence with Des Moines. According to records its mean depth through the rapids was and "much less" in many places. Beginning in 1804 United States government-sponsored

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

s for Native Americans as part of the Native American

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

system began being built at the rapids. Forts were associated with the trading posts including

Fort Johnson Fort Johnson was a U.S. Army post built on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River in modern-day Warsaw, Illinois, during the War of 1812. The fort was established in September 1814 by Major Zachary Taylor, future 12th President of the United Sta ...

Fort Madison Fort Madison is a city and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 10,270 at the time of the 2020 census. Located along the ...

. The forts were burned during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

. After the war Fort dwardswas established and commanded by

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

. In 1816 U.S. Government surveyor John C. Sullivan surveyed a line stretching north from the confluence of the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwesternmost part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwesternmost portion of the extensive Mississippi River dr ...

with the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri and then back east to the

. The distance matched the rapids but when Missouri entered the Union in 1820 its constitution instead referred to the Sullivan line as "the parallel of latitude which passes through the rapids of the River Des Moines." Missouri did not attempt to clarify the mistake even when the

Iowa (tribe) The Iowa, also known as Ioway, and the Bah-Kho-Je or Báxoje (English: grey snow; Chiwere language, Chiwere: Báxoje ich'é) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American Sioux, Siouan people. Today, they are enrolled in either of ...

, Sauk and

Fox (tribe) The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...

ceded all land "in Missouri" along the line from the Mississippi to the

Indian Territory Line Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

(Sullivan's line going north from the Kansas) in 1824. This created the

Half-Breed Tract A Half-Breed Tract was a segment of land designated in the western states by the United States government in the 19th century specifically for Métis of American Indian and European or European-American ancestry, at the time commonly known as ha ...

. When interest in the rapids increased in the late 1830s as work began on making the rapids navigable, along with Iowa's beginning the process of entering as a state, Missouri took an interest in asserting control of the west side of the rapids. However, thwarted by its constitution which clearly stated the Des Moines River was the border, it instead asserted that there were no rapids where the Sullivan line crossed the Des Moines and conducted a new survey which said the rapids of the Des Moines were about north, near

Keosauqua, Iowa Keosauqua ( ) is a city in Van Buren County, Iowa, United States. The population was 936 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Van Buren County. History Keosauqua was laid out in 1839. The word Keosauqua derives from the Me ...

, and attempted to collect taxes in the area. This prompted the bloodless Honey War, with Iowa resisting the effort. The Supreme Court was to ultimately decide in '' State of Missouri v. State of Iowa'', 48 U.S. 660 (1849), that Iowa's southern boundary was the foot of the rapids at modern day Keokuk (although accepting the Sullivan Line for the rest of the border from about {{convert, 20, mi, km west).

References

Exploration and Settlement - Beautifulnavoo.comProceedings of the River Improvement Convention, Held in St. Louis February 12 & 13, 1867 - Union Merchants Exchange of St. Louis - 1867
Landforms of Hancock County, Illinois Bodies of water of Illinois Bodies of water of Iowa Landforms of Lee County, Iowa Mississippi River Rapids of the United States