46 Business View Magazine - May 2016
The Iowa and Northern
Railway Company
The old rock island line gets back on track
“The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road,
The Rock Island Line is the road to ride.
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it
like you find it,
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock
Island Line.”
Those lyrics are from “Rock Island Line,” an American
blues/folk song, first recorded by John Lomax in 1934,
and later popularized by Lead Belly (Huddie William
Ledbetter), the Louisiana-born, Afro-American singer
and musician. Many versions have been recorded by
other artists, most significantly, the worldwide, hit ver-
sion in the mid-1950s, by Lonnie Donegan.
