The Sites: Davenport and Bettendorf

Due to a somewhat nomadic life, my answer to "Where are you from?" will always depend on the circumstances of the question.  Most often, my answer is Iowa, specifically Davenport, the largest of the Quad Cities, set along the banks of the Mississippi River.  This is a place that always is as it was, yet is always just different enough to show the passage of time.  This is an area defined as much by its geography as by its people.  It is this intersection of place and memory that makes it so compelling to attempt to capture in images.

Centennial Bridge; Davenport

Mallards; Mississippi riverfront

The largest city on the Mississippi without a permanent flood wall or levee, Davenport is inextricably linked to the river and its ebbs and flows.  Every flood is devastating to the residents who watch their homes and their livelihoods drown before their eyes, yet the rest of the nation rarely hears of their plight unless it happens on a much grander scale, as it did in 1993.  Despite this, the idea of a levee or some other structure that would separate the town from the water is ridiculous to most of the residents.  The river is part of the landscape; it is as much a part of the city as the buildings and the streets.  It is at once the same and different: the movement of the water means that it is never the same river as when you were there before, whether it was two years ago or two days, but it is always there, flowing on past the city on its way towards the delta.  The iconic bridges that cross it - five in total, plus one rail - seem to merge with the water below.

Bettendorf Bridge and Leech Park; Bettendorf

One town over in Bettendorf is the area's only suspension bridge.  At its base is Leech Park, where my grandfather taught me to fish as a child and where the mallards gather to swim, eat, sleep, and do other fowl things.  Every trip back requires time spent here, sitting on the rocks, listening to the water lap against the shore, watching the barges carry their cargo up and down the locks.



Heading north from the Davenport riverfront (the river flows east to west here), you will head up the steep hills of the bluffs so common on the upper Mississippi.  Soon, you will encounter Vander Veer Botanical Park, modeled partly after New York's Central Park, tucked into a neighborhood of Tudor-style homes flanking its boundaries.  The botanical garden boasts some of the finest roses in the area; its playground and pond are a place for the young and old to play and rest.  The fountain at the southern end of the park has finally been restored and shoots its water 30 feet into the air before splashing back into its reflecting pool, where you can sit and dip your feet as the water cycles through its routine.