MOLINE

city, Rock Island county, northwestern Illinois, U.S. It lies just above the upper rapids of the Mississippi River (there crossed by the Twin Bridges to Iowa). With East Moline, Rock Island, and Davenport (qq.v.), Iowa, it forms the Quad Cities. The site was laid out in 1843 by a milling firm. Its name is apparently from the French moulin (mill). John Deere, inventor of an improved steel plow, established a workshop there in 1847, and Moline, sometimes called The Plow City, was by 1890 a centre of plow production. Farm implements and machinery remain important to the diversified Quad Cities industrial complex. Moline is the seat of Black Hawk (junior) College (1946). Inc. town, 1848; city, 1872. Pop. (1990) city, 43,080; DavenportRock IslandMoline MSA, 350,855; (1994 est.) city, 43,472; DavenportRock IslandMoline MSA, 357,775.