Hours:

Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

About:

The City of Rock Island is a full-service community located on the Mississippi River, approximately 175 miles west of Chicago. Rock Island is a major city in what is known as the Quad Cities, a region with a population approaching 400,000 that encompasses Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline, Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa. According to the 2010 census, Rock Island’s population is 39,018. 

Organization of the City:

The City is organized under a council-manager form of government, with legislative authority vested in a City Council made up of a mayor and seven aldermen. Aldermen are elected from wards to staggered four-year terms. The City is a home rule unit under the 1970 Illinois Constitution and, as such, has broad powers to support development activity in the community. Administrative functions are unified through the direction of the city manager who is appointed by the mayor and council and charged with overseeing the day-to-day operations of the City and its more than 350 full-time employees. 

History:

Since 1835 , the great Sauk warrior Black Hawk lived here when the U.S. Army secured the upper Mississippi for white settlers. Ft. Armstrong, built on what is now Rock Island, served as both a trading post and military installation, attracting more white settlers and eventually leading to the fall of Black Hawk and migration west by the Sauk and Fox Indian nations. Growth of the Ft. Armstrong post came about due to its strategic location in a shallow area of the Mississippi River, which eased access for riverboats. Within a few years, the small town across from the trading post became a thriving and growing frontier river town of several hundred families. The original City plat was filed on July 10, 1835, and was named Stephenson. It was renamed Rock Island in 1841.