The Quad-Cities region is the only area where the Mississippi River actually flows from the east to west. The river serves as a natural boundary between Iowa and Illinois, but also ``joins'' the metropolitan area.

According to Indian legend, long ago, as the Great Father of Waters carved his way southward, creating a new and mighty river, he happened upon an area so unexpectedly beautiful that he turned his head for a lingering look. Thus the course of the river was altered forever.

Which cities actually make up the Quad-Cities depends on who you ask. Earlier this century, the region was referred to as the Tri-City area, and everybody could agree on Davenport, Rock Island and Moline.

The term Quad-Cities was coined at least as early as the 1920s to include the fourth-largest city, East Moline; but in the 1960s and '70s, burgeoning Bettendorf shot past East Moline in population and staked its own claim as the fourth ``Quad-City.'' Some started using the name Quint-Cities to avoid the controversy, but ``Quad'' seems to have stuck.

The metropolitan area includes the major cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline in Illinois. Many people extend the definition to include the rest of Scott County, Iowa, and Rock Island County, as well as parts of Henry and Mercer counties, in Illinois. That would add Blue Grass, Princeton, Pleasant Valley, Buffalo, LeClaire, Riverdale, Eldridge and DeWitt in Iowa, and Colona, Geneseo, Carbon Cliff, Hampton, Silvis, Port Byron, Orion, Illinois City, Coal Valley, Viola, Silvis, and Sherrard in Illinois. (That's at least 25 communities, if you're counting.)

The total population of the metropolitan area is over 380,000, with 139,225 households. About 484,500 live in the six counties closest to the Quad-Cities, and 2,568,700 live within a 100-mile radius.

The Quad-Cities is within a day's drive of many major metropolitan areas: Cedar Rapids, 90 miles; Peoria, 95; Springfield, 150; Des Moines, 174; Chicago, 180; Milwaukee, 201; St. Louis, 240; Indianapolis, 303; Omaha, 305; Minneapolis, 330; Kansas City, 350; Cincinnati, 413, and Detroit, 415.

In the last decade, the Quad-Cities has become a Midwest tourist destination, mostly because of the Mississippi River and riverboat gambling, but increasingly as an entertainment center as well.

The Quad-Cities can be hot and sticky in the summer and frozen solid in the winter, but spring and fall here make it all worthwhile. Average temperature is 70.9 degrees in summer and 26.7 in winter; average annual rainfall totals 37.2 inches, and the average winter's snowfall, 30.6.

Most tourist information is available at the Mississippi Valley Welcome Center, at the intersection of Interstate 80 and U.S. 67 near Bettendorf; or the Quad-Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2021 River Drive., Moline, and 102 S. Harrison St., Davenport.