Rock Island, Illinois is on the Mississippi River. I've always thought that the railroad took it's name from this city---one of four that are known as the QUAD CITIES. They are Rock Island, Moline, Illinois, Bettendorf, Iowa, and another that escapes me at the moment. They were all just south of LeClaire, Iowa which is where the Julia Belle Swain (stemboat) and the Twilight (Diesel-electric) were based out of during the 1980s and the 1990s. (I folksang and told tall tales on both boats for a decade.)

Art Thieme