The Ioway, Sauk, Meskwaki, and Sioux peoples moved seasonally across these prairies for centuries — Iowa is “the beautiful land” in the Ioway tongue. French explorers Jolliet and Marquette paddled the Mississippi’s western bank in 1673. Statehood came on December 28, 1846. Iowa sent more than 76,000 men to the Civil War, proportionally one of the highest rates in the Union. Herbert Hoover, born in West Branch, became the first president born west of the Mississippi. The caucus comes here first, every four years.
Iowa sits between two great rivers: the Mississippi on the east and the Missouri on the west. Its 99 counties form a tidy rectangle across the north-central plains, bisected by the Des Moines River and the rolling Loess Hills.
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Long before European contact, the Ioway, Sauk, Meskwaki, Sioux, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe peoples moved seasonally across Iowa’s prairies and river valleys, sustained by bison herds and abundant waterways. The name Iowa derives from the Ioway people, whose villages dotted the Des Moines River valley for centuries.
French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette paddled the Mississippi’s western bank in 1673, claiming Iowa for France. It passed to Spain, back to France, and then to the United States through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The first permanent American settlement at Dubuque grew around lead mines that drew speculators from across the young republic.
Iowa Territory was carved out in 1838, and statehood followed on December 28, 1846 — the twenty-ninth state. Settlers poured in along the Military Road and river corridors, breaking the deep-rooted prairie sod with steel plows. Within a generation, Iowa ranked among the nation’s top agricultural producers, its dark loam soil among the richest on earth.
The state sent more than 76,000 men to fight in the Civil War — proportionally one of the highest rates in the Union. Postwar industrialization brought railroads, meatpacking plants in Sioux City and Ottumwa, and the rise of Des Moines as a financial and insurance hub. Grant Wood captured the stoic dignity of rural Iowa in his 1930 painting American Gothic, and Herbert Hoover of West Branch became the first president born west of the Mississippi.
Today Iowa remains the nation’s top producer of corn, pork, and eggs, while wind turbines harvest the same prairie winds that once drove mill wheels. The Iowa caucuses — held every four years since 1972 — give this mid-sized state outsized influence on the presidency, drawing candidates, journalists, and political theorists to its county courthouses each winter.
French explorers canoe the Mississippi’s western shore, mapping what will become Iowa’s eastern boundary.
Julien Dubuque negotiates rights with the Meskwaki to mine lead near present-day Dubuque, establishing the first lasting European presence.
Iowa passes to the United States as part of the vast territory purchased from Napoleonic France for $15 million.
The U.S. Army establishes Fort Madison on the Mississippi — Iowa’s first permanent American settlement, though it is abandoned in 1813.
Congress creates Iowa Territory with Burlington as its first capital, opening the floodgates to pioneer settlement.
Iowa enters the Union on December 28 as the twenty-ninth state, with Iowa City as its capital.
The capital moves west to Des Moines, better reflecting the state’s expanding population in the interior.
The Union Pacific’s Council Bluffs terminus and the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad link Iowa to both coasts, accelerating grain exports.
Cedar Rapids native Grant Wood paints American Gothic in Eldon, creating one of the most recognized images in American art.
Iowa holds its first modern presidential caucus, beginning a tradition that makes it the first nominating contest every four years.
Real Iowa people who have placed their names — and their stories — into the hex grid. Each square mile, a chapter.
My father was the kind of man who carried more than he ever talked about. He worked hard, kept his promises, and made sure his children had...
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Ninety-nine counties of the world’s most fertile cropland, from the Mississippi bluffs at Dubuque to the Loess Hills above the Missouri. The state that earned its name from the Ioway, sends the first caucus, and produces enough corn to feed half the country’s livestock. Set your field on the Hawkeye map.
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