DUBUQUE

city, seat (1834) of Dubuque county, northeastern Iowa, U.S., on the Mississippi River (bridged to East Dubuque, Ill.), opposite the junction of the Wisconsin and Illinois boundary lines. It was named for Julien Dubuque (17621810), a French trader, who in 1788 concluded a treaty with the Fox Indians giving him lead-mining rights. He was the first white man to permanently settle in the region later to become Iowa; a monument marks the site of his mine and burial plot. Further concessions were rejected by the Indians until the Black Hawk Treaty of 1832. Mining and sawmilling were pioneering enterprises, but with the development of river and rail transportation the city became industrialized, emerging by the 1980s as the focal point of an expanding manufacturing area. Meat-packing, agriculture, and the manufacture of wood products and machinery are among the main economic activities. In 1893 Dubuque was made an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, which maintains Loras (1839) and Clarke (1843) colleges there. The University of Dubuque was founded in 1852 as the German Theological School of the Northwest. Our Lady of New Melleray Abbey, 12 mi (19 km) southwest, was founded in 1849 by Trappist monks. The city's Old Shot Tower (1856) was in full production during the Civil War, utilizing locally mined lead for bullets. Inc. town, 1837; city, 1841. Pop. (1990) city, 57,546; Dubuque MSA, 86,403.