BURLINGTON, a city of Iowa, U.S.A., situated on the bluffs of the Mississippi river, near the south-east corner of the State; the county seat of Des Moines county. It is on Federal highways 34 and 61, and is an important railroad centre, served by the Burlington, the Rock Island, and the Toledo, Peoria and Western railways. The population in 1930 Federal census was It has a large jobbing business, notably in furniture; ex tensive railway repair and construction shops; and numerous other manufactures, including baskets, furniture, Corliss engines, agricultural implements, coffins, monuments, crackers, candy, and pickles. The factory output in 1925 was valued at $12,793,060. Crapo Park (Ica ac.) occupies a camping ground of the Indian chief Black Hawk. There is a State park just north of the city, in which a municipal golf course is maintained.
Lieutenant Z. M. Pike visited the site of Burlington in 18o5, and recommended the erection of a fort. A fur-trading post was established in 1829, and permanent settlers began to come in 1833, after the Black Hawk war. A town was laid out in 1834. At first it was called Flint Hills, a translation of the Indian name, but was renamed for Burlington, Vermont. The town was in corporated in 1837, and received a city charter in 1838 from the territory of Wisconsin. The territorial legislature of Wisconsin met here from 1836 to 1838, and that of Iowa from 1838 to 1840. The city adopted a commission form of government in 1917. Its two daily newspapers, the Gazette and the Hawk Eye, were established in 1837 and 1839 respectively. The latter became widely known in the years following 1872 through the humorous sketches of Robert Jones Burdette