Bettendorf – Industrial growth and the rapid recognition

There are so many legends about the past rich heritage ofBettendorf city. It was so glorious in its past and even as of today it is regarded as one of the prominent spots in the whole of the United States.

Bettendorf is actually lying in the region which used to be the Wisconsin zone once upon a time. Itbelongs to the Black Hawk race. It was purchased by the Sac and Fox Indians in the year 1832. Homesteaders started to flow in since the year 1840. Lilienthal is its original name. The name belonged to the dance hall owner in the region which was a very early tavern. Around 1858, they renamed the town to be Gilbert. It was done to honor the great Elias Gilbert. It was this gentleman who actually platted the whole of the town for the first time. The sketch was so crisp and neat to be appreciated by the present surveyors as of even today.

 Germans were the first ones that started to occupy the place and those Germans were just peasants at that point of time. They like the locality for there were good climatic conditions compared to their home land. The place and the soil were so suitable for them to do their variety of agriculture and farming. Irrigation was so easy with abundant supply of water as well.
Reap and the yield were so good for the farmers that they settled in the place without having to go back to their home land at all. The generations passed on and they became permanent residents of the new localityin decades as generations passed on. These inhabitants of Bettendorf are now big business owners as of today.

Skilled laborers that migrated to this part of the world once upon a time have sowed the seeds for the big businessmen of the present day. Until the time of the second world war the residentsin theBettendorf region were just about 4000 people or so. Current massive population explosion started when ALCOA started here in the year 1948. Workers from different parts of the country and across the world were coming in to do their best tasks towards the improvement of the aluminum smelting plant. Over a period of time, Bettendorf started to scale leaps and bounds in its industrial growth as well as the population explosion too.