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| This 1934 official State of Illinois highway
map shows the stair-step path taken by Route 6 between Moline and Geneseo,
before the late 1930s re-routing of the highway southward out of Moline
and straight east through Briarbluff to Geneseo. The older route took 6
through East Moline, Silvis, Carbon Cliff, and Colona. The map also shows
that Route 6 in Illinois still carried the U. S. 32 numbering, even though
6 had taken the place of 32 across Illinois and Iowa in 1931.
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This
graceful sweep of an old Route 6 segment, west of Geneseo, provides the
platform for a picnic table. The original 90-degree turns in the
stair-step route were later rounded like this one. (March 1997
photo) |
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The above early 1920s photo shows the rather
labor-intensive job of paving Illinois Route 7 west of
Geneseo. This new hard road would become U. S. 32 in the
mid-1920s, then U. S. Route 6 in 1931. Source: Geneseo
Historical Association, Geneseo, Illinois: The First 150
Years. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing Co, 1985.
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| Route 6 parallels
the old Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad tracks across most of
Illinois and most of Iowa. Here is a March 1997 photo of the Rock
Island depot in Geneseo. What was then called the Chicago and Rock
Island Railroad first arrived in Geneseo in late fall, 1853, before being
completed to the Mississippi River early the following year. In June
of 1854, the Grand Excursion, a combination rail and steamboat trip from
Chicago to St. Paul, came through Geneseo on two trains. A New
York Times reporter on the excursion observed: "Geneseo is a thriving
village ... on this rolling prairie, which was settled a few years ago by
a colony from Genesee, New York. It contains now about 600 people, who,
previous to the construction of the railroad, could have had little
intercourse with the rest of the
world."
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Henry County, Illinois
