LEE COUNTY 1. Chief Keokuk Memorial Marker by Keokuk Chapter DAR 1913 Location: At the north end of Rand Park overlooking the Mississippi River between 15th and 17th streets of Keokuk. History: Chief Keokuk was chief of the Sac-Fox Indians. He discouraged his tribe from fighting the whites as they would outnumber the Indians. He would say, "They are springing up like grass on the prairies." He was born about 1790 near the Rock River in Illinois and died around 1848 in Kansas. In 1883 his remains were brought to Keokuk, Iowa, buried there and marked with a monument bearing a statue of Chief Keokuk more than 10 feet high.

The statue was erected by popular subscription costing $4,200 and was unveiled October 22, 1913. Inscription on one side of this monument indicates that the city of Keokuk was the Gate City to Iowa. This was the beginning of the Iowa Trail, also known as the Mormon Trail. The Mormons camped just east of Rand Park on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. Chief Keokuk

2. USS Maine Memorial Tablet Marker by Keokuk Chapter DAR 1916 Location: Rand Park just north of the Chief Keokuk statue. History: "Remember the Maine!" The Maine was an American battleship that was sunk by an explosion while she was anchored in Havana Harbor the night of February 15, 1898. That phrase was taken up by the people of the U.S.A. to arouse patriotic support for the Spanish-American War declared soon after the harbor incident when 260 lives were lost. On June 14, 1916, a tablet provided by the Secretary of the Navy was used to honor those men killed.