Old concrete industrial remains are now canvases for graffiti on Sylvan Island's historic property.

An old train bridge is now a popular fishing spot on Sylvan Island.

Illinois park ripe with industrial ruins

By: Adam Hurlburt

Posted: 4/5/07

There are some places that are so steeped in human history that one can stop, look around and feel the layers of time that have altered the area pulling down on the psyche. This is the case with Sylvan Island in Moline, Ill.

A stroll through Sylvan Island is a heady one; it's not very often that a walk through a city maintained park yields so many questions.

As one meanders along one of the many paths through this wooded landscape, large, grey, concrete ghosts slowly appear from within the brush.

Sylvan Island was home to Republic Iron and Steel Co. from 1894 to 1956. In those days the majority of this 28 acre island was covered in large buildings, heavy machinery, and railroad tracks.

The cold grey ghosts of the island are the bare foundations of the mighty industrial heart that beat so furiously here for over 60 years.

The evidence of this massive industrial operation is easy to spot: cement partitions to rooms jut from the mossy ground, stacks of red bricks litter the landscape, and long cement loading docks cut through the woods leading to cement platforms concealed under a small accumulation of dirt and leaves.

The transformation of this island from derelict, wild, and forgotten to a city managed park was not an easy one. Sylvan Island as it is today is result of nearly 30 years of negotiation between the city of Moline and a group called the Sylvan Island Dreamers.

Dr. Norm Moline, Hamming professor of geography at Augustana College is one of the people most directly responsible for the transformation of the island into the park it is today.

Moline joined the Augustana faculty in 1968, that year one of his newly acquainted colleges told him to check out a mysterious island downtown.

Moline made his first journey to the island and was floored by what he saw, so much so that he decided to incorporate the island into his class curriculum.

"I did teach one and still teach on class that is now called water and land resources, I thought 'well lets get some students out instead of just doing work inside, lets do a study of this place," Moline said.

Shortly after the study began, Moline's students expressed a desire to do something larger with the island.

They came up with a proposal for a combination "nature park, fishing park, and historical park." Word spread quickly and eventually got to a famous ecologist who was putting together a presentation for the Western Hemisphere Conference of World Health.

He came to the island, worked with Moline and his students and eventually presented the study on the island to the world health conference.

"The Moline Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) got wind of this, so we met the CAC and they were really impressed," Moline said. "So they're the ones who brought it before the Moline City Council."

According to Moline, the Moline City Council was locked on the plan for quite a few years, some people liked the idea while others only envisioned a park as an open area filled with nicely trimmed bushes and swing-sets.

"It just sat there, so in this case, no news was good news because every year the vegetation was getting taller and thicker and we were getting a nice example of secondary succession," Moline said.

In the early '90s, after years of the proposal sitting stagnant in the city council, an organization was formed in an attempt to push the proposal through.

The organization, called the Sylvan Island Dreamers was made up of Moline, local social activist Jesse Perez, and many others whom had some relation to the island.

A break came for the dreamers shortly after they formed. A group of very influential Moline citizens were looking for a place to build a memorial for Tom Rogers, a recently deceased social activist who made quite an impression on the city of Moline despite his status as a quadriplegic. The two groups met and it was decided that the Rogers memorial was to be built on Sylvan Island. The proposal finally got accepted by city council.

"By the time the park was dedicated in the late '90s - from the time the idea came up until it was approved, it was almost thirty years," Moline said. "It's an example of perseverance."

The end result is a city park unlike any other, a place that offers many stories to those that wonder its paths.

According to Moline, Sylvan Island is one of the best examples in the state of Illinois of botanical succession in a degraded landscape. In light of these interesting scientific facts, the park is largely used for recreation.

Runners, mountain bikers, fishermen or simply those out for a relaxing stroll pour into the park in the warmer months. Sylvan Island is also one of the premier mountain biking courses in the Quad Cities.

The quad city mountain bike organization Friends of Off Road Cycling (QCFORC) maintains off road biking trails on the island with the help of the Moline parks board. QCFORC holds a large race on the island each year. There are also plans this year for a triathlon to take place on the island and in the waters that surround it.

Despite all the success that Sylvan Island has experienced in the past 10 years, Moline's passion for the island remains rooted in the same place it was when he took his first walk on the island nearly forty years ago.

"Urban planner Kevin Lynch wrote this book called 'What Time is this Place' and he said, 'a good place is a spot where you go and you can somehow tell that it's been around a while.' To me, that's what is special about Sylvan Island," Moline said.

"Whatever you do there you feel like you're part of something that's been around a while. Just by walking on that island you could tell the history of the Quad Cities."