Black Hawk Purchase

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Black Hawk Purchase, sometimes called the Forty-Mile Strip or Scott's Purchase, was a land acquisition made in what is now Iowa by the United States federal government.

The land, originally held by the Sac, Fox and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Native American people, was purchased for $640,000 on September 21, 1832, following the Black Hawk War. The price is equivalent to 11 ¢/acre (26 $/km²). It was named for the chief Black Hawk, despite the fact that he was in federal custody at the time the arrangement was made. The area of the Black Hawk Purchase contained some 6 million acres (24,000 km²)

The treaty was made by Gen. Winfield Scott and the Governor of Illinois, John Reynolds, at what is now Davenport, Iowa, on the west bank of the Mississippi River. The agreement was ratified February 13, 1833, and officially went into effect on June 1, 1833, when the territory became the first section of what is now Iowa to be opened for settlement by Easterners.

The land granted was described as follows:

"Beginning on the Mississippi River at a point where the Sac and Fox northern boundary line, as established by the second article of the treaty of Prairie du Chien, July, 1830, strikes said river; thence up said boundary line to a point 50 miles [80 km] from the Mississippi measured on said line; thence in a right line to the nearest point on the Red Cedar, of Iowa, 40 miles [60 km] from the Mississippi; thence in a right line to a point in the northern boundary of the State of Missouri, 50 miles [80 km] measured on said boundary from the Mississippi River; thence by the last mentioned boundary to the Mississippi River, and by the western shore of said river to the place of beginning."

According to The Making of Iowa (1900), "The Black Hawk Purchase extended along the west side of the Mississippi River from the north boundary of Missouri north to the Upper Iowa River. The Upper Iowa River is in the northeast corner of Iowa, and must not be confounded with the Iowa River in the southern half of the state. Therefore this tract extended from Missouri nearly to Minnesota. It was 50 miles [80 km] wide at the ends, and 40 in the middle."

According to The History of Jefferson County, Iowa (1879), "This was a strip of land on the west bank of the Mississippi River, the western boundary of which commenced at the southeast corner of the present county of Davis; thence to a point on Cedar River, near the northeast corner of Johnson County; thence northwest to the neutral grounds of the Winnebagoes; thence to the Mississippi to a point above Prairie du Chien..." Still another history describes it as extending from the Yellow River in the north to the Des Moines River in the south.

Two areas were held back as special awards; one was assigned to Keokuk and his people in thanks for their neutrality (later known as Keokuk's Reserve), the other was given to "half-breed" translator Antoine LeClaire. (Note: LeClaire's reserve was different than the Half-Breed Tract, which was set aside before the Black Hawk Purchase.)

The land of the purchase was successively governed by the legislatures of the Michigan Territory, the Wisconsin Territory and finally Iowa Territory and Iowa.

The Black Hawk Purchase was followed by the so-called Second Black Hawk Purchase (1837) and New Purchase (1842).