Roald Tweet
Writer and Narrator of 'Rock Island Lines'Beginning 1995, historian and folklorist Dr. Roald Tweet spun his stories of the Mississippi Valley to a devoted audience on WVIK. Dr. Tweet published three books as well as numerous literary articles and recorded segments of "Rock Island Lines." His inspiration was that "kidney-shaped limestone island plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River," a logical site for a storyteller like Dr. Tweet.
It was from Rock Island’s rich heritage that Dr. Tweet spun his histories, biographies and "stretchers." Among his favorite topics were railroads and riverboats, which he combined on a CD in celebration of the Grand Excursion in 2004. "Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet" received awards from the Illinois Historical Society as well as the Towner Award from the Illinois Humanities Council.
Dr. Tweet was professor emeritus, retired from the Augustana College English department, where he was professor and Conrad Bergendoff Chair in the Humanities. A writer and radio personality, Dr. Tweet was also an accomplished woodcarver and whittler.
Dr. Tweet left us in November of 2020, but his legacy lives on. You can hear many of his Rock Island Lines in podcast form here and also in a forthcoming book from WVIK and East Hall Press.
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.If Lieutenant Albert M. Lea had realized the trouble he would cause back in 1836, he might have never casually referred…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.If you are the kind of person who gives your car a name—like Alice or Jonathan—I’m afraid I have bad news. I’m almost…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.For the better part of a century, down until the end of World War II, the quality of life in the small rural…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Iowa was not always the corn-and-soybeans state. In the 1840s, when she was still a brand-new territory, her principle…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.How many temperance societies does a town need in order to keep its German immigrants from drinking beer? That’s the…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.One day in February of 1834, four Winnebago Indians appeared in the little frontier mining village of Dubuque in what…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.We all know from experience how relentlessly the Wheel of Fortune turns, but seldom has it turned as fast as it did for…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.It was the Scottish poet Robert Burns who reminded us that the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. Along these…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.We all agree, don’t we, that civilization is on its last legs? A few more years, at most. Who’s to blame, do you think?…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.To some residents of Clinton, Iowa, the ad in the local newspaper promising a seven-day excursion to the Falls of St.…