Just south of Dubuque, Iowa on US-52 is Mines of Spain, a state park which, despite driving by innumerable times since first moving to Iowa in 1972, I had never visited but always wondering why Mines of Spain. The park has trails popular for hiking and cross country skiing – not really my thing – but the Scenic Overlook sign indicated potential. On a gorgeous late May afternoon, with camera in tow, I parked and walked the short distance to the overlook.
Bingo! Upstream and downstream views of the Mississippi River, with the Dubuque skyline in the distance. Straight across is Illinois where a gorgeous, green canopy of trees growing unencumbered on seemingly uninhabited islands. Birds soaring high before swooping down to grab its next meal from the river. Very quiet and peaceful, few people hiking on a weekday.
Before walking back to my car, I took a closer look at the monument. The opposite side, facing the river, is the burial site Julien Dubuque. I slowly realized that this is not only a place to admire views but also a memorial to the European man whom first settled in what would become Iowa, Dubuque the city as his eponymous namesake.
Julien Dubuque
Who exactly was Julien Dubuque. French-Canadian trader, 1762-1819, concluded a treaty with local Native American tribe for lead-mining rights, one of first European men to setting in the area.
The Julien Dubuque Wikipedia page mentions a disputed marriage to the daughter of the local chief and claims He is remembered as a friend of the Native Americans in the area and a champion of their cause. Seems a little too clean for what we know about European/Native American interactions at the time.
An onsite-plaque explains how
[t]he 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.
Though contradictory information makes for divergent viewpoints, most interpret how Native Americans viewed land ownership as substantially different than that of the European settlers. The right to work the lead mines sounds like corporate leasing while Spanish Land Grants is for property ownership. Did cultural differences allow the Native Americans to understand the differences? Today the Native Americans might question whether the Spanish Crown could legally assign ownership of land that, in their opinion, wasn’t “their’s” (whatever that means).
When petitioning the Spanish Crown, Dubuque claimed to have purchased rather than leased the land, again highlighting the cultural differences that made for misinterpretation:
…having made a settlement on the frontier of your government, in the midst of the Indian Nations, who are inhabitants of the country, has bought a tract of land from these Indians with the mines it contains….
Encyclopedia Dubuque believes Dubuque petitioned the Spanish because he was concerned about the validity or legality of the agreement with the Native Americans. His diplomatic language is de rigueur when pleading your case with a then-world power: ass-kissing, brown-nosing, but definitely successful as his petition was successful.
For as benevolent as Dubuque is often portrayed, he was not above dirty tricks:
The most popular tradition which has come down to us is that on one occasion when the Indians refused to accede to some demand, he threatened to set Catfish Creek on fire, and leave their village high and dry. They still denied him; so one night his associates emptied a barrel of oil—or turpentine—on the water, above the bend, and when it had floated down to the village, Dubuque set fire to it. In a few moments the entire creek was apparently in a blaze. The terrified Indians made haste to concede all Dubuque had asked—and supposedly by the exercise of his will, the fire went out.
Conclusions? Today we know that the Europeans treated Native American tribes poorly during this time: taking land as desired, making one-sided agreements, using force to drive out or slaughter the tribes, trading when profitable, and bringing diseases unknown to the Native Americans which killed millions. From that perspective, Dubuque is no better, no worse than any other European settler. If he did champion Native American causes, undoubtably he perceived some personal benefit. Wikipedia claims that the Meskwaki Nation built Dubuque’s crypt, but willingly or at gunpoint? It’s unlikely a complete, correct understand of Dubuque’s impact can be created because undoubtably it changes the otherwise white-centric narrative that has been built up over the centuries.
This placard is probably the most honest and least pro-Dubuque/pro-settler of any at the monument. I doubt the “successful casino” addresses the tribe’s mistreatment over the centuries, but presumably brings in substantial cash!
Image Credits
- Julien Dubuque Monument © Pat McGarry, copied from Google Maps.
- “Julien Dubuque” by Charles Louis Trudell, public domain.
- All other images © 2026 Scott C Sosna, all rights reserved.
