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