4 IOWA INTRODUCTION Located in the north-central area of the United States known as the Midwest Iowa is a major farming state that plays an important role as one of the nation’s main breadbaskets Vast cornfields and massive hog farms have supplied the country with food for decades Iowa is often described as one giant farm with businesses that handle all aspects of the agricultural process from harvesting crops to packaging foods Roughly rectangular in shape the state has rolling prairie farmland that stretches from the Mississippi River on the east to the Missouri River on the west Its rich soils nourish some of the most abundant crops in the world Iowa is one of the most productive agricultural states in the country More than nine tenths of its land is farmable Iowa ranks among the leading states in number of farms In 2002 Iowa had more than 90,000 farms Iowa is a Native American word meaning This Is the Place or The Beautiful Land The state and the Iowa River were named after the Iowa people Iowa entered the Union on Dec 28 1846 as the 29th state The state motto is Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain Iowa’s state bird is the eastern goldfinch
INTRODUCTION 5 Iowa shares its borders with Minnesota to the north Wisconsin and Illinois to the east Missouri to the south and Nebraska and South Dakota to the west Traveling through Iowa is simple thanks to the state’s many roadways and airports The state’s rural road system connects its sparse population which is spread over 56,275 square miles Some 114,000 miles of roads make it easy for Iowa’s farmers to get their goods to market Iowans and visitors also use these roads to explore the state by car For those traveling by air Iowa has more than 100 public airports Most of the state’s major cities provide air service but Iowa’s busiest airport is the Des Moines International Airport The Des Moines and Cedar Rapids airports are busy with freight cargo as well as passenger traffic Railroads serve most of the counties in Iowa A great deal of commercial traffic uses the Missouri and Mississippi rivers Together these two rivers provide almost 500 miles of navigable waterways along the state’s eastern and western borders Iowa Location Map Capital Des Moines Interstate highways Mi 0 30 60 0 48 96 Km Population 2,926,324 Size 56,275 square miles Highest peak Hawkeye Point 1,670 feet In 2003 Des Moines International Airport had a record year of activity with some 911,000 passengers boarding planes there The state flag has three vertical stripes red white and blue The central white stripe contains a bald eagle carrying a blue streamer with the state’s motto written on it Although Iowa has been a state since 1846 its present boundaries were not drawn until 1857 The Great Seal of Iowa pictures a soldier standing in a wheat field in front of the Mississippi River Above the soldier an eagle carries the state motto Iowa is known as the Hawkeye State a tribute to Black Hawk leader of the Fox and the Sauk in the early 1800s Scale
Native Americans were Iowa’s first inhabitants French explorers arrived in the area in the late 1600s Like most of the states along the Mississippi River and throughout the Midwest Iowa was settled by adventurous people from the Eastern states and from Europe These early American settlers had set out westward in search of new opportunities Settlers often took over Native American land by force and claimed it for themselves Many conflicts arose between Native Americans and white settlers and warfare also broke out among the various Native American groups In the 1830s the Sauk and the Fox people led by Black Hawk battled the U S Army over disputed lands in Iowa Illinois and Wisconsin The U S Army won the Black Hawk War of 1832 and as a result the Sauk and the Fox gave up their claims on area lands Iowa’s quiet rural charm is evident in its many small towns Nestled into the Mississippi River valley Lansing had a modest population of about 1,000 people at the time of the 2000 census 6 IOWA The stainless steel 60-foot tall Tree of Five Seasons stands at the site of the first log cabin built in Cedar Rapids The state tree is the oak It is common throughout Iowa Iowa continues to be a state of small towns and farms Its largest cities Des Moines and Cedar Rapids had populations under 200,000 in the early 21st century The United States acquired the land that became Iowa from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803
INTRODUCTION 7 In 1993 Iowa suffered through the most devastating flood in the history of the United States Over 23 million acres of land in the upper Midwest were inundated with water After the floodwaters receded it was discovered that the pressure from the flooding had exposed underlying limestone uncovering an ancient ocean floor Hundreds of thousands of visitors flocked to the area to walk on the 375-million-year-old bedrock and search for fossils in the limestone At its heart Iowa remains a very large collection of rural communities An important grassroots political movement began in Iowa and the nearby states of Wisconsin Michigan and Illinois In 1854 the Republican Party was launched when Iowans and others held small meetings in their homes to discuss a new vision for the country The Iowa caucus a series of meetings through which the state’s voters make their choices for U S presidential candidates began in the mid-1800s but came to national prominence in 1972 when it was rescheduled as the first nominating contest of the presidential campaign Oktoberfest celebrations are held every year during the first weekend of October at the Amana Colonies a group of seven small villages in east central Iowa This German-style festival includes traditional music and dance food and drinks crafts and a parade In 1993 intense rainstorms led to severe flood damage in all 99 of Iowa’s counties An 1839 dispute between Iowa and Missouri over Iowa’s southern border is known as the Honey War The two states almost came to blows over three bee trees along the border They argued over who owned the land that contained the trees which had valuable bee honey The situation was resolved before any actual fighting occurred Clark’s Tower in Madison County pays tribute to Iowa’s pioneer past Built in 1926 it is a 25-foot-tall memorial to one of the county’s first pioneer families
