Chaplain Schmitt Island
Chaplain Schmitt Island, also known as City Island or Ham Island, is a river island of the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa. It is separated from mainland Iowa by Lake [Peosta Channel]. The Q Casino and Dubuque Yacht Basin are located on the island. A memorial in the shape of a spiral with a pond containing a replica of the battleship is found on the island.
Name
Chaplain Schmitt Island was named after Aloysius Schmitt, who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ham Island comes from Mathias Ham's ownership of the island.History
In 1875, the island was two spits of land in the Mississippi. Mathias Ham would come to own most of the island, becoming known as Ham Island.The island hosted Dubuque [Municipal Airport|an airport] on it built and opened in 1934. The airport would be abandoned due to flooding issues and Dubuque [Regional Airport] would be built to the south of Dubuque in 1948. The island subsequently hosted a dump on it for two decades before being closed in August 1976.