Marquette, Iowa

Marquette is a city in Clayton County, Iowa, United States.

[2] The city, which is located on the Mississippi River, is named after Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette, who along with Louis Joliet discovered the Mississippi River just southeast of the city on June 17, 1673.

Marquette is located directly across from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and the two cities are connected by U.S. Route 18, which crosses the river on the Marquette-Joliet Bridge.

Effigy Mounds National Monument and the Yellow River State Forest are a few miles to the north.

Marquette itself was originally incorporated as North McGregor in 1874, and it served as a railroad terminus for its southern neighbor.

Initially trains had to be ferried across the river between Marquette and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in order to continue their journey, but this system came to an end when Prairie du Chien businessman John Lawler had a permanent pontoon bridge built to connect the two cities' rail lines.

Marquette subsequently became home to a major rail yard, which even as late as 1920 was the busiest in Iowa, employing 400 people.

Not too long afterwards, the railroad's significance declined, the last passenger train stopped in Marquette in 1960, and the pontoon bridge was disassembled in 1961.

Today the city is a tourist destination along the mighty Mississippi River.

The racial makeup of the city was 98.7% White, 0.8% Native American, 0.3% Asian, and 0.3% from two or more races.

Pontoon bridge near Marquette, 1885
Map of Iowa highlighting Clayton County