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History of Iowa
Iowa’s Early History--Indians
• Saux and Fox• Two most powerful tribes in this area• They hunted and established villages along the Mississippi
and Rock Rivers (Quad Cities)
• Blackhawk War• Chief Blackhawk fought a war against the white people in
Illinois (LOST)
• Mesquaki• Only tribe living in Iowa today • Tama County
Iowa’s first settlers
• Natural Resources• Wood (Timber in the East)• Good land (prairie/tall grass)• Lots of rivers• Coal (southern Iowa)
• Mormon Trail • Across the Southern Part of Iowa (US 34)
Road to Statehood• 1803—Iowa was part of Louisiana Purchase
• 1808---Ft. Madison was created, first fort on the Mississippi River
• 1838---Iowa becomes a US Territory
• 1846---Iowa becomes the 29th State
• Capitals– Burlington Territorial Capital of Iowa– Iowa City: Iowa’s first state capital– Des Moines Became state capital in 1857
Transportation
• Rivers• The Mississippi River gave easy access for shipping goods to
New Orleans
• All large cities were located on rivers
• Railroad• By 1860 Chicago had over a dozen RR lines that went to Iowa
• RR’s began to stretch across the state
• Burlington, Davenport, Clinton, Dubuque had own lines
• Better than water b/c it was year round way to transport
Civil War
• Iowa was in the Union
• 75,000 served from Iowa– 13,001 died – Served most in the battles of the west (Shiloh)
Politics
• Republicans• Dominant party early in Iowa’s History• Found more in Rural Areas• Scandinavian
• Democrats • More popular later in Iowa’s History• Found more in Urban Areas• Initially Germans and Irish
Immigrants
• Iowa’s population grew dramatically from 1860-1870
• 674,000---1,194,020
• Iowa: Home of Immigrants • Book that recruited immigrants to come to Iowa.
• Germans and Scandinavians were the immigrant groups with the highest percentage of people moving into Iowa
Germans
• Settled in a variety of areas• NE Iowa (Farming)• Along the Mississippi River (Industry and Farming)
• Germans kept a lot of their same German culture until WWI.
• They were primarily Methodist and Baptists• They were the most popular immigrant
group
German Ancestry
Scandinavians
• Scandinavians:– Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands
• Very Isolated• Norwegians (Northeast Iowa)
• Swedes (Boone Co)
• Danes (Southwest Iowa)
• Dutch (Story City and Pella)
Norwegian Ancestry
Dutch Ancestry
African Americans
• After the Civil War, the number of African Americans in Iowa increased considerably.
• WWII• Extremely high migration of African Americans to cities within
the North• Waterloo and Des Moines saw a significant increase• Worked in major factories (John Deere in Waterloo)
• Today• Highest number of minorities are found in cities• Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Waterloo
Farming
• Obviously a very important profession in Iowa– Was very profitable during WWI and WWII
– Not profitable during Great Depression and the 1980s
• Farm Holiday Association • Withheld supplies from market.
• Farming continued to suffer until the start of WWII when they were forced to grow food to supply troops.
• New Ideas• Iowa farmers have been important in developing many new
agricultural ideas
Large In-State Universities
• University of Iowa• Located in Iowa City
• Established as a liberal arts university in 1847
• Iowa State University• Located in Ames
• Established under the Morrill Act in 1862
• University of Northern Iowa• Located in Cedar Falls
• Established as a teacher college in 1876
Negative News about Iowa
• Clear Lake Tragedy• 1959 Plane Crash involving Richie Valens, Big Bopper,
and other famous Musicians
• Postville Raid• Raid on illegal immigrants at numerous plants within
Postville
• University of Iowa Shooting• Shooter opened fire in the Van Allen building (1989),
killed 5
• One of the first mass shootings
New laws within Iowa
• Rural Free Delivery• Made it easier for farmers to get their news, mail,
• Iowa’s Gay Marriage Law• April of 2009, made Iowa one of the handful of
states to allow gay marriages
• No Smoking Ban• In 2008, became one of a handful of states to ban
smoking in public buildings
Attractions
• Iowa State Fair
• RAGBRAI—bike ride across Iowa
• Field of Dreams—Dyersville, Iowa
• Snake Alley
• Athletics• College Athletics (DI, DII, DIII, NAIA, JUCO)
• High School Athletics
• Knoxville Nationals
Natural Disasters
• Disasters– Tornado’s
– Parkersburg– Pomerory– Camanche
– Blizzards– Floods
– 1965– 1993– 2008