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Clinton and Lyons, Iowa are
located in the center of the U.S.A. It is a mystery of history why
Clinton hasn't grown larger, since it is in a strategic place on the
Mississippi River, Lincoln Highway, and on major railway lines. Maybe the growth is yet to come!
 The first golf course at
13th Ave. No. and 4th St. had nine holes and sand greens. He's teeing off
toward the Brewery tower.
 Bird's eye view of Ringwood
Park, looking toward the NW and the bluff. You can see a limestone quarry
below where the Congregational Church is today. Everyone owned a
house in those days. No cars, tv's, boats, etc., to divert
funds.
 Old baseball team with Horace
Ingwersen, center of 2nd row.  Horace 20 years later as a
bowlerin 1939, the week he bowled a 300; the next week he excused himself during
a game and went to the restroom, where he dropped dead! He was a great Clinton
athlete and his brother coached the State University of Iowa football team.
Eddie Swamberger is to his left in this picture.
Clinton
High Football team of '04 at Ringwood Park,
near Hawthorne
School.
A house is moved up the Congregational
Church hill early in the century. Crowe Bros. did the job and the technology
probably doesn't even exist any more. As the story goes, they left a
glass of water on the kitchen table, and if they spilled a drop, the
job was free!
Look out for that first
step!
 The old stone house, circa
1838, purported to be part of the Underground Railway. That was
disputed in the 1976 Bicentennial History book. If even one slave
stayed in the root cellar out back during the day and moved on at
night, it would be
true!
 Chancy
School (Longfellow) on Camanche Ave. near 20th & 21st Place on the south
side of the street, circa 1870-1927
THESE NEXT TWO ARE ON SOUTH BLUFF
The Clinton, Davenport, to
Muscatine Electric RR, carbarn. You could get to Davenport in 90
minutes at the turn of the century. It was known as the Iowa
Interurban or CD&M.
 The same spot as the previous photo. The Rich
Toy factory was part of this complex of buildings. Also Kelly
furniture and Ringland Johnson Construction used these buildings on
Bluff Boulevard.
 The
CD&M heading for Shafton (now deserted, south of Camanche). Parts
of the trestles of this and other railways like the "Calico" Railroad
(the Lyons, Iowa Central of 1854) are still evident in the
countryside. The "Calico" railroad went broke and they paid off the
workers with calico cloth.
 You've heard of Hart's Mill Road and Mill Creek. Here is the actual mill on a postcard; the beautiful colorization was done in Germany. Most photographers sold postcards as a sideline. This site is near Valley Oaks Country Club.
 W.F. Coan was a
banker who was instrumental in bringing the Lincoln Highway through
Clinton. It was the first transcontinental automobile highway.
Unfortunately, the concept at that time was to run the road through
every town along the way. Later we changed the concept to an
interstate, non stop idea. Nevertheless Clinton can return to
preeminence with infrastructure changes such as four-lane
thoroughfares and a beltway around the town.
In Camanche, the DePues had a factory for
fabricating steel.
  
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