Dubuque's Mines of Spain / Historic Dubuque

Dubuque's Mines of Spain, also, Historic Dubuque. . , Dubuque's Mines of Spain , The city of Dubuque was named for Julien Dubuque, a swarthy French­ Canadian who came to this area around 1785. Dubuque wooed Potosa, the daughter of Peosta, a Fox Indian chief whose village stood at the mouth of Catfish Creek, just below present-day Dubuque. In 1788 the Fox Indians gave Dubuque the right to work the lead mines in what is now Dubuque County. In 1796 Governor Carondelet of Upper Louisiana granted Dubuque the first and largest of three Spanish Land Grants in Iowa. This so-called Mines of Spain was a 9-mile wide tract adjoining the Mississippi between the Little Maquoketa and Tete de Mort Creek. Late each fall Dubuque left his Mines of Spain for St. Louis with a boatload of furs and lead. Unsuccessful in his mining venture, he fell heavily in debt to Auguste Chouteau and signed away the southern half of his Spanish Land Grant. On his death in 1810, the Chouteaus attempted to take over the land but the Fox Indians drove them away, claiming Dubuque was given the right to work the mines, not own them. This argument was upheld by the United State Supreme Court in 1853. , Historic Dubuque , Historic Dubuque -- the Key City of Iowa -- formed a part of what became French Louisiana when Joliet and Marquette paddled by in 1673. Perrot taught the Miami Indians how to mine lead here in 1690. France ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain in 1762, placing this area under Spain. Frenchmen mined lead here during the American Revolution. The Fox Indians granted Julien Dubuque the right to work the lead mines in 1788 and this right was confirmed by a Spanish Land Grant in 1796. Dubuque, the first permanent settler in Iowa, died in 1810. His tomb is on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi below Dubuque. Sturdy lead miners drew up the Miner’s Compact (the first code of laws in Iowa) on this site in 1830. Permanent white settlement began here in 1833 following the withdrawal of the Fox Indians. The first survey of the city limits was made that fall. Dubuque is a city of many firsts -- the first church and the first murder and public hanging (1834), the first newspaper and the first bank (1836). The town was incorporated in 1836. Dubuque, city and county, had 31,164 inhabitants in 1860.