Rock Island Arsenal

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The Rock Island Arsenal comprises 946 acres (3.8 km²), located on Arsenal Island in the Mississippi River, in Rock Island, Illinois. It is the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the United States. The arsenal has been an active manufacturer of military equipment and ordnance since the 1880s. Established as both an arsenal and a center for the manufacture of leather accoutrements and field gear, today it provides manufacturing, logistics, and base support services for the Armed Forces. The Arsenal is an active*[1] US Army factory, which manufactures ordnance and equipment, including artillery, gun mounts, recoil mechanisms, small arms, aircraft weapons sub-systems, grenade launchers, weapons simulators, and a host of associated components. Some of the Arsenal's most successful products include the M198 and M119 towed howitzers, and the M1A1 gun mount. About 250 military personnel and 6,000 civilians work there.

The Rock Island Arsenal Museum was established on July 4, 1905. It is the second oldest US Army Museum in the United States after the West Point Museum. The museum has been closed down twice, during World War I and World War II, to provide more space for manufacturing facilities. Other historical sites in the area include the Confederate Cemetery, the Rock Island National Cemetery, 19th century stone workshops, officer's quarters along the river, Col. Davenport's House and the site of the first bridge built across the Mississippi.

During the Civil War, Arsenal Island was home to a Confederate prison camp, the Rock Island Prison Barracks and the cemetery where a total of 1,964 Confederate Prisoners and 125 Union Guards are buried. The camp was operational from December 1863 to July 1865.