Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
ZOLLICOFFER'S LAKE
ZOLLICOFFER'S LAKE. Popular picnic site north of Dubuque. Named for Jacob ZOLLICOFFER who owned the site, the location was a backwater area of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER and the land around it. The place remained popular until the 1930s when the ZEBULON PIKE LOCK AND DAM flooded it.
While most people rode the train up and back as paying passengers, some adventurous young people were said to take another route home. Hopping freight trains in the winter, they rode to the frozen lake and skated all day. When exhausted, they unfurled a large sheet. With each person holding on, the sheet was hoisted like a sail, and the wind blew them south to Dubuque over the frozen river.