Rock Island county is located in western Illinois to the northwest of the Interstate 80/Interstate 74 interchange and east of Davenport across the Mississippi River.
Corn and soybeans do well in the Mississippi Valley's rich alluvial soils--one of the most fertile agricultural areas in the world.
Helping to make farming productive was John Deere, inventor of the self-scouring plow in 1837. His original shop was in Grand Detour, just north of Dixon. He built a mansion in Moline in 1880 and it stands today as a tribute to the man and the farm implement industry.
The county seat is the town of Rock Island and the county population on July 1, 1999, was 147,522, a decrease of 1,201 over the 1990 census.
For information on county government, contact the National Association of Counties Web site.
Additional information is available at these pages:
