Burlington, Iowa, United States

History | Geography | Economy | Downtown Burlington | Sport | Transport : Road | Transit | Rail service | Transport : Air

🇺🇸 Burlington is a city in, and the county seat of, Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. Burlington is the centre of a micropolitan area, which includes West Burlington and Middletown, Iowa, and Gulfport, Illinois. Burlington is the home of Snake Alley, a crooked street.

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History Prior to European settlement, the area was neutral territory for the Sac and Fox Native American tribes, who called it Shoquoquon (Shok-ko-kon), meaning Flint Hills.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson organized two parties of explorers to map the Louisiana Purchase. The Lewis and Clark Expedition followed the Missouri River, while Lt. Zebulon Pike followed the Mississippi River. In 1805, Pike landed at the bluffs below Burlington and raised the United States Flag for the first time on what would become Iowa soil and recommended construction of a fort. The recommendation went unheeded.

The American Fur Company of John Jacob Astor established a post in the area in 1829. Settlement began in 1833, shortly after the Black Hawk Purchase, when Samuel (aka Simpson) White, Amzi Doolitle, and Morton M. McCarver crossed the Mississippi River from Big Island and staked claims there. According to an account A.T. Andreas wrote in 1875, White erected a cabin in the area later platted to be Front Street between Court and High streets. Andreas called White and Doolittle the Romulus and Remus of their settlement, referring to the mythic heroes who founded Rome, a city surrounded by hills. A few weeks later, William R. Ross joined them and established a general store. In November and December, he surveyed the settlement for White and Doolittle.

In the spring of 1834 they allowed John Gray, who purchased the first lot with his wife Eliza Jane, to rename the town for $50. Gray chose to name it Burlington in honor of his hometown in Vermont. The Grays' daughter Abigail was born in Burlington that same year, the first European-descended American settler child born on Iowa soil.

In 1837, Burlington was designated the second territorial capital of the Wisconsin Territory. The Iowa Territory was organized in the following year, and Burlington was named as its first territorial capital. The government used "Old Zion", the first Methodist Church in Iowa (located near what is now Third and Washington streets), to conduct its business. A historical marker commemorates the site of the church and early territorial government.

In April 1885, economist Henry George gave a speech titled "The Crime of Poverty" at the Burlington Knights of Labor local advocating for a citizen's dividend paid for by a land value tax.

Iowa's nickname, "The Hawkeye State", has its roots in Burlington. At Judge David Rorer's suggestion, publisher James G. Edwards changed The Iowa Patriot newspaper's name to The Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot in tribute to his friend, Chief Black Hawk. Rorer is said to have found the name in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, but Edwards proposed the nickname to "…rescue from oblivion [sic] a momento [sic], at least of the name of the old chief".

Burlington was a bustling river port in the steamboat era and a central city to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The "Burlington Route" (1848–1970) merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad (1970–1996), which in turn merged into the BNSF Railway (1997–present). The "Burlington" name has been given to one of the United States' largest railroads. One of BNSF's main east-west lines, the Ottumwa subdivision, still crosses the Mississippi at Burlington.

In the late twentieth century, retail expanded with suburbanization of the population. After purchasing Benner Tea, Aldi opened its first store in the United States at Burlington in 1976. Westland Mall opened in nearby West Burlington in 1977.

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Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.24 square miles (39.47 km²), of which 14.48 square miles (37.50 km²) is land and 0.76 square miles (1.97 km²) is water.

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Economy Burlington's roots are in transportation and manufacturing. Manufacturing plants are among the largest employers in the area, including companies such as American Ordnance LLC, Case Corporation, ABB (formerly General Electric), Champion Spark Plugs, Shearer's Foods and Winegard Company. The largest employer in the area is the Great River Medical Center. Among the oldest businesses in Burlington, the Murray factory (now Murray Turbomachinery and owned by Dresser-Rand) which has been in operation in Burlington since before 1900, the original building on Central St. and Washington St. which was divided by the local train tracks, was recently razed. Another long-lived business is Case Corporation, which has been at its current location on Des Moines Avenue, approximately a quarter-mile from the Mississippi River, since 1937. The first backhoes rolled off the assembly line at the Burlington plant in 1957, which is now the only plant in the United States that produces the Case Loader/Backhoe, giving Burlington the nickname "Backhoe Capital of the World". Case is now a division of the Italian holding group CNH Industrial. Employment at Case peaked in the 1980s, according to the Des Moines Register, then declined after "Case initiated a wave of buyouts and early retirements in the 1990s and early 2000s, and ended the contract with the union in 2004"; but in May 2010, the Register reports, Case announced that "it will open a new line that builds corn-picker heads for combines, as early as [Spring, 2012]" and that by mid-2013 it will add more than 200 positions.

Over the last several years, several businesses have either left the area or relocated elsewhere. These businesses include Exide, makers of vehicle batteries, CAT, Case Corporation's closest competitor in American made construction equipment, and Lehigh-Leopold, makers of office furniture. This has left some former manufacturing plants around the city empty, but other businesses have moved into them; PPG, maker of auto safety glass has moved into the former CAT plant, and a warehouse has moved into the former Leopold building. In March 2012, the Des Moines Register reported that "Unemployment here is 7.6 percent, compared with the 5.4 percent state average".

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Downtown Burlington The downtown area holds a number of buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, among them the Burlington Apartments (listed as the Hotel Burlington), the Burlington Railroad Depot, the Des Moines County Courthouse, the Burlington Fire Department central station, the Port of Burlington building, Memorial Auditorium, River Park Place (as Burlington Mercy Hospital), the former Burlington Police Department building. It is perhaps best known for Snake Alley, the most crooked street in the US. (as Burlington Paper Company), The Capitol Theater, First Congregational Church, St. Paul's Catholic Church and several others. The downtown skyline is noted for its several church spires.

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Sport Burlington is the home of the Burlington Bees baseball team, a member of the Prospect League, a collegiate summer baseball league. They were previously members of Minor League Baseball's Class A Midwest League until Major League Baseball's reorganization of the minor leagues after the 2020 season. The Bees play at Community Field, which underwent extensive renovation in 2005.

Burlington hosts the Snake Alley Criterium, one of the most physically challenging races in the Midwest. The annual event is held on a 15-block course, with differences in elevation from 555 feet to 678 feet. The course is entirely on city streets, mostly in the downtown commercial area. A one-block-long climb is on the historic brick street named Snake Alley. The 276-foot-long Snake Alley has five switchbacks in a 60-foot climb. The average grade is 12.5 percent in that one block.

Twice, Burlington has been the finishing point for RAGBRAI, the annual bicycle ride that starts at the Missouri River in western Iowa and ends in eastern Iowa at the Mississippi River.

Burlington is also the home of the Burlington High School and Notre Dame High School sports teams. Also in the Burlington area are the sports teams of Southeastern Community College, which have had a successful history, including three men's basketball national championships.

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Transport: Road The town is served by U.S. Route 34, which is the freeway that bisects the city, and U.S. Route 61. Iowa Highways 99 and 406 served the town before they were decommissioned in 2003. The two still exist as county roads.

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Transit Burlington Urban Service (B.U.S.) is a transportation system owned and operated by the City of Burlington. Routes service nearly all areas of Burlington, and nearly 90% of all residents live within three city blocks of a bus route. Burlington Trailways provides daily intercity bus service from its West Burlington hub.

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Rail service Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Burlington, operating its California Zephyr daily in both directions between Chicago, Illinois, and Emeryville, California, across the bay from San Francisco. The older Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Passenger Station exists nearby and is also listed on the NRHP.

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Transport: Air The Southeast Iowa Regional Airport (IATA code BRL), is located about five miles south of downtown. Quad City International Airport, the area's large international airport, is approximately 70 miles north of the city, in Moline, Illinois.

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America/Chicago/Iowa 
<b>America/Chicago/Iowa</b>
Image: Adobe Stock f11photo #197971650

Burlington has a population of over 23,982 people. Burlington also forms the centre of the wider Des Moines County which has a population of over 38,910 people. Burlington is situated 127 km south-east of Iowa City.

Twin Towns - Sister Cities Burlington has links with:

🇧🇷 Barbacena, Brazil 🇨🇦 Burlington, Canada
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Burlington is: 88.9,-40.8

Locations Near: Burlington -91.1,40.8

🇺🇸 Fort Madison -91.333,40.617 d: 28.3  

🇺🇸 Muscatine -91.05,41.417 d: 68.7  

🇺🇸 Galesburg -90.35,40.95 d: 65.2  

🇺🇸 Davenport -90.576,41.544 d: 93.6  

🇺🇸 Quincy -91.389,39.936 d: 99.2  

🇺🇸 Moline -90.483,41.483 d: 91.9  

🇺🇸 Iowa City -91.53,41.66 d: 102.2  

🇺🇸 Hannibal -91.383,39.7 d: 124.7  

🇺🇸 Cedar Rapids -91.669,41.978 d: 139.3  

🇺🇸 Peoria -89.593,40.693 d: 127.5  

Antipodal to: Burlington 88.9,-40.8

🇦🇺 Bunbury 115.637,-33.327 d: 17513.2  

🇦🇺 Mandurah 115.721,-32.529 d: 17464.7  

🇦🇺 Rockingham 115.717,-32.267 d: 17450.8  

🇦🇺 City of Cockburn 115.833,-32.167 d: 17435.9  

🇦🇺 Vincent 115.834,-31.936 d: 17423.1  

🇦🇺 Perth 115.857,-31.953 d: 17422.1  

🇦🇺 Wanneroo 115.803,-31.747 d: 17415  

🇦🇺 Guildford 115.973,-31.9 d: 17409.7  

🇦🇺 Midland 116.01,-31.888 d: 17406  

🇦🇺 Albany 117.867,-35.017 d: 17406.7  

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