Keokuk

Keokuk, Iowa
—  City  —
Main Street, Keokuk
Location of Keokuk, Iowa
Coordinates: 40°24′9″N 91°23′40″W / 40.4025°N 91.39444°W / 40.4025; -91.39444
Country	United States
State	Iowa
County	Lee
Area
- Total	10.6 sq mi (27.4 km2)
- Land	9.2 sq mi (23.7 km2)
- Water	1.4 sq mi (3.7 km2)
Elevation	571 ft (174 m)
Population (2000)
- Total	11,427
- Density	1,247.5/sq mi (481.7/km2)
Time zone	Central (CST) (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP code	52632
Area code(s)	319
FIPS code	19-40845
GNIS feature ID	0458054

Keokuk Iowa bottom, with the Mississippi River, its lock, dam, power plant, rail bridge and highway bridge.

Keokuk (pronounced /ˈkiːəkʌk/) is a city in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Iowa and one of the county seats of Lee County. The other county seat is Fort Madison. The population was 11,427 at the 2000 census. The city is named after Sauk Chief Keokuk, who is buried in Rand Park. It is located in the extreme southeast corner of Iowa where the Des Moines River meets with the Mississippi. It is located at the junction of U.S. Routes 61, 136 and 218. Just across the rivers are the small towns of Hamilton and Warsaw, Illinois, and Alexandria, Missouri.

Keokuk along with the city of Fort Madison, are principal cities of the Fort Madison–Keokuk Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Lee County, Iowa and Clark County, Missouri.

Geography

Keokuk is located at 40°24′9″N 91°23′40″W / 40.4025°N 91.39444°W / 40.4025; -91.39444 (40.402525, -91.394372)^[1]. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10.6 square miles (27.4 km²), of which, 9.2 square miles (23.7 km²) of it is land and 1.4 square miles (3.7 km²) of it (13.42%) is water. The lowest point in the state of Iowa is located on the Mississippi River in Keokuk, where it flows out of Iowa and into Missouri and Illinois. The confluence is located about a mile west of downtown.

History

Keokuk was centrally located due to its position at the head of navigation at the rapids of the Mississippi. One of the earliest descriptions of Keokuk was made by Caleb Atwater in 1829:

The village is a small one containing twenty families perhaps. The American Fur Company have a store here and there is a tavern. Many Indians were fishing and their lights on the rapids in a dark night were darting about appearing and disappearing like so many fire flies; the constant roaring of the waters, on the rapids the occasional Indian yell, the lights of their fires on the shore, and the boisterous mirth of the people at the doggery attracted my attention occasionally while we were lying here. Fish were caught here in abundance.^[2]

Latter-day Saints (Mormons) fleeing persecution in Missouri settled in Keokuk in 1839. There was a branch of the church in Keokuk, but it remained peripheral to the main center of the saints further up river in Nauvoo. Most of the LDS in Keokuk moved west in 1846 with the members of the faith.

In 1853 the Mormon pioneers were outfitted for their journey west in Keokuk, with over 2,000 of them passing through the city.^[3]

Keokuk was the longtime home of Orion Clemens, brother of Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. Sam's visits to his brother's home led him to write of the beauty of Keokuk and southeastern Iowa in Life on the Mississippi.^[4]

In 1850 there were 2,475 people in Keokuk. In 1930 there were 15,106 residents.^[5]

In 1875 the Keokuk Westerns participated in the National Association, the first professional baseball league. They went 1-12 before going out of business.

Green Tambourine collapse

The Green Tambourine building, January 2009, it collapsed in July 2009.

On July 31, 2009 the historic Green Tambourine building unexpectedly collapsed. No one was injured, and the cause is under investigation.^[6] The building, a former music shop, was considered a local landmark, and preservation and restoration efforts had just begun.^[7]

Demographics

As of the census^[8] of 2000, there are 11,427 people, 4,773 households, and 3,021 families residing in the city. The population density is 1,247.5 people per square mile (481.7/km²). There are 5,327 housing units at an average density of 581.6/sq mi (224.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city is 92.87% White, 3.90% African American, 0.27% Native American, 0.52% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.45% from other races, and 1.99% from two or more races. 1.09% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 4,773 households out of which 29.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.8% are married couples living together, 13.2% have a female householder with no husband present, and 36.7% are non-families. 32.4% of all households are made up of individuals and 16.2% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.35 and the average family size is 2.97.

Population spread: 25.4% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 22.9% from 45 to 64, and 17.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 38 years. For every 100 females there are 88.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 83.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $31,586, and the median income for a family is $39,574. Males have a median income of $31,213 versus $21,420 for females. The per capita income for the city is $17,144. 11.9% of the population and 8.1% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 15.7% of those under the age of 18 and 13.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Culture

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Attractions

The Mississippi River lock and dam along with the hydroelectric power plant were built in 1913 and still utilize most of the original equipment. When it began operation in August, 1913, it was the largest single powerhouse electric generating plant in the world.^[9] It is part of the Keokuk Lock & Dam, both of which are visible from a park at the foot of the commercial district. The old lock, built in 1913 became too small for newer, larger barges and was replaced in 1957 with a 1200' x 110' lock. It also was the longest dam in the world, had the longest transmission line, and the highest voltage in the world. The Chief Engineer was Hugh L. Cooper.

The Grand Theatre was designed by Merle F. Baker and was constructed on the foundation of the Keokuk Opera House (Circa 1880) which burned in 1923. It was patterned after theaters in Chicago and was praised as one of the finest theaters in the country at the time. Presently, The Grand Theatre is owned by the city of Keokuk and is used as a performing arts center. The theatre has housed many historically important performers over the years, including both John Philip Sousa and Maynard Ferguson.

The tap water produced for the city at the Keokuk Waterworks Plant has been awarded the "Best Tasting Water In Iowa" by the Iowa Water Council.

Keokuk is also home to the Keokuk National Cemetery, the Keokuk Veteran's Memorial, the Miller House Museum, the annual American Civil War reenactment, and the George M. Verity River Museum.

Education

The Keokuk Community School District has four elementary schools (George Washington, Torrence, Hawthorne, and Wells Carey), Keokuk Middle School, and Keokuk High School. The middle school was damaged by a fire in 2001^[10] and replaced by a new school on a lot next to the high school.

Private education is provided by Keokuk Catholic Schools and Keokuk Cristian Academy.

Keokuk is also home to a campus of Southeastern Community College (Iowa).

A few miles north of Keokuk is the Galland School, a replica of the first schoolhouse constructed in Iowa.

Music

Each summer Keokuk is home to "Rollin' on the River," a local blues festival that attracts hundreds to Victory Park.

A community concert band exists in the form of the Irish themed McNamara's Band. The band has been around for many decades and regularly performs throughout the area.

Once a month the jazz big band, "Craig Bullis and Friends," performs at the local Hawkeye restaurant. The band is made up of area jazz musicians, as well as both collegiate level students and Professors of Music. The band has featured such guest artists as Reggie Watkins, former lead trombone and music arranger for Maynard Ferguson and Big Bop Nouveau.

Every Saturday evening starting at 7:00 PM some of the best tri-state area all original bands perform at "Music at the Mall" at the River City Mall located at 300 Main Street. In much part due Music at the Mall Keokuk has had an impressive and productive underground music scene the last few years starting with the band Handbook for the Recently Deceased and continuing with The In-Betweens, Guraja and Siva just to name a few.

Theatre

Keokuk is home to the Great River Players, a thespian troupe that strives "to provide quality amateur theatrical productions for the tri-state area by encouraging members of the surrounding communities to express their creative abilities in all aspects of live theatre." The troupe performs a season of three shows, usually two plays and one musical.

Pop culture references

The town's name has been mentioned in a variety of ways on television, including: an episode of The Simpsons where Krusty the Klown mentioned Keokuk, along with Walla Walla, Cucamonga, and Seattle as funny named places; an episode of Nickelodeon's All Grown Up in which a class project involved family trees with ancestors originating in Keokuk; an episode of M*A*S*H in a story line involving Radar O'Reilly; an episode of the New Zoo Revue in which Freddy the Frog was blurting out random answers for a trivia contest; in a Dennis the Menace cartoon; and as part of a joke on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. Keokuk has also been mentioned on the game show "Jeopardy" under the category of starting and ending in K. It was described as "A small town in southeast Iowa".^{[citation needed]}

Keokuk was also mentioned in a W. C. Fields film, as well as in the lyrics to Iowa Stubborn from Meredith Willson's 1957 musical, The Music Man. In the operetta Mlle. Modiste it is referred to a number of times as the hometown of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Bent, the latter of which sings a song extolling the virtues of The Keokuk Culture Club.

See also

• Lock and Dam No. 19
• Keokuk National Cemetery
• Keokuk Rail Bridge
• Keokuk-Hamilton Bridge

Further reading

For a depiction of Keokuk during its early boom years see: Michael A. Ross, “Cases of Shattered Dreams: Justice Samuel Freeman Miller and the Rise and Fall of a Mississippi River Town,” Annals of Iowa, 57 (Summer 1998): 201-239.

External links

• The History of Keokuk Web site
• George M. Verity Riverboat Museum
• HAER - Mississippi River 9-Foot Channel, Lock & Dam No. 19, Upper Mississippi River, Keokuk, Lee County, IA
• Keokuk, Iowa at the Open Directory Project

• Keokuk, Iowa is at coordinates 40°24′09″N 91°23′40″W / 40.402525°N 91.394372°W / 40.402525; -91.394372 (Keokuk, Iowa)Coordinates: 40°24′09″N 91°23′40″W / 40.402525°N 91.394372°W / 40.402525; -91.394372 (Keokuk, Iowa)

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