Iowa (IA).

• Region: Midwest
• Population: 3,200,517 (ranked 31st) (2022 estimate)
• Capital: Des Moines (pop. 211,034) (2022 estimate)
• Largest city: Des Moines (pop. 211,034) (2022 estimate)
• Number of counties: 99
• State nickname: Hawkeye State
• State motto: "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain"
• State flag: Red, white, and blue stripes with a detail from the state seal and the name “Iowa”

Iowa, the "Hawkeye State," entered the Union on December 28, 1846, as the twenty-ninth state. Part of the Upper Midwest, Iowa is famous as one of the nation's leading agricultural producers. The Mississippi River borders the state on the east; across the river are Illinois and Wisconsin. Other neighbors include Minnesota on the north, Nebraska and South Dakota on the west, and Missouri on the south. A region of many small towns, with few large cities, Iowa has a reputation as "middle America" or "the heartland," a place that preserves traditional American values. It also has a reputation for excellent education at institutions such as the University of Iowa.

State Name: The state is named for the Iowa River, which in turn takes its name from the Iowa (Ioway) Indians, who inhabited the region when the first European explorers arrived. The name is thought to mean "Beautiful Land."

Capital: The capital of Iowa is Des Moines, which means "the place where the monks are." This name reflects the historic presence of French missionary monks, some of the early European settlers of Iowa. It has served as the capital since 1857. The original state capital was Iowa City. The territorial legislature met at Burlington.

Flag: Iowa's state flag, adopted in 1921, has a vertical tricolor (blue, white, and red) background like that of the French flag. A bald eagle appears in the white strip in the middle. In its beak it carries a banner bearing the state motto: "Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain." Beneath this image is the state's name in red.

Official Symbols

• Flower: Wild Rose
• Bird: Eastern goldfinch
• Tree: Oak
• Song: "Song of Iowa" by S. H. M. Byers

State and National Historic Sites

• Abbie Gardner Sharp Cabin (Arnolds Park)
• American Gothic House (Eldon)
• Blood Run National Historic Landmark (Lyon County)
• Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop (Haverhill, Marshall County)
• Effigy Mounds National Monument (near Harpers Ferry)
• Herbert Hoover National Historic Site (West Branch)
• Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
• Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail
• Plum Grove Historic Home (Iowa City)
• Montauk Historic Site (Clermont)
• Toolesboro Mounds National Historic Landmark (Toolesboro)
• Western Historic Trails Center (Council Bluffs)

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Population: 3,200,517 (ranked 31st) (2022 estimate)
• Population density: 57.1/sq mi (2020 estimate)
• Urban population: 63.2% (2020 estimate)
• Rural population: 36.8% (2020 estimate)
• Population under 18: 22.6% (2022 estimate)
• Population over 65: 18.3% (2022 estimate)
• White alone: 89.8% (2022 estimate)
• Black or African American alone: 4.4% (2022 estimate)
• Hispanic or Latino: 6.9% (2022 estimate)
• American Indian and Alaska Native alone: 0.6% (2022 estimate)
• Asian alone: 2.8% (2022 estimate)
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0.2% (2022 estimate)
• Two or More Races: 2.2% (2022 estimate)
• Per capita income: $34,817 (ranked 27th, 2021)
• Unemployment: 2.7% (2022 estimate)

American Indians: The civilizations known as the Mound Builders, known for their prominent burial mounds, lived in Iowa during prehistoric times. In the seventeenth century, European explorers met around seventeen tribes in the region, including the Iowa (part of the Oneota culture), the Sac (or Sauk) and Fox (Meskwaki or Mesquakie), Missouri, Oto, Potawatomi, and Sioux. White settlers fought numerous conflicts with the American Indians in the area. Black Hawk, a leader of the Sac and Fox, fought White Americans in the 1832 Black Hawk War. US army and militia troops defeated the American Indian forces, ending the tribes' military power. Beginning in the 1830s, the federal government actively forced the tribes to relocate out of Iowa.

The Meskwaki returned to Iowa in 1856 and established a settlement along the Iowa River. Officially known as the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, they are the state's only federally recognized tribe, based on several thousand acres in Tama County.

ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRAPHY

• Total area: 56,273 sq mi (ranked 26th)
• Land area: 55,857 sq mi (99.3% of total area)
• Water area: 416 sq mi (0.7% of total area)
• National parks: 2
• Highest point: Hawkeye Point (1,670 feet)
• Lowest point: Mississippi River (480 feet)
• Highest temperature: 118° F (Keokuk, July 20, 1934)
• Lowest temperature: -47° F (Washta, January 12, 1912; Elkader, February 3, 1996)

Topography: Much of Iowa, like other parts of the Midwest, was once covered by prairie. Settlement changed that, and the prairie has largely given way to farms. Farming and settlement have also removed many of the original forests and woodlands. The surface of Iowa is mostly low and rolling. The regions near the Mississippi and Missouri rivers have some steep hills or bluffs. These two rivers—the Mississippi and the Missouri—are the state's main watersheds.

Major Lakes

• Backbone Lake
• Big Creek Lake
• Black Hawk Lake
• Coralville Reservoir
• Corydon Reservoir
• Don Williams Lake
• East Okoboji Lake
• Lake Odessa
• Lake Red Rock
• Lake Wapello
• Rathbun Lake
• Saylorville Lake
• Silver Lake
• Spirit Lake
• West Lake Osceola
• West Okoboji Lake

Major Rivers

• Cedar River
• Des Moines River
• Iowa River
• Maquoketa River
• Mississippi River
• Missouri River
• Turkey River
• Wapsipnicon River
• Wyaconda River

State and National Parks: Iowa has more than seventy state parks and natural areas. These include scenic waterways such as Badger Creek and Beed's Lake, as well as historic sites such as the George Wyth Memorial. There are also four sites managed by the National Park Service. Effigy Mounds National Monument preserves the site of a an American Indian burial mound, while Herbert Hoover National Historic Site honors the nation's thirty-first president. The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail both pass through the state.

Natural Resources: One of Iowa's greatest natural resources is the rich soil, which has made it one of the nation's leading agricultural states. Resources include cement (the most important), stone, sand, gravel, and gypsum.

Plants and Animals: Iowa is home to numerous wildfowl and small game species. Wildfowl include snow geese, ring-necked pheasant, wild turkeys, the bobwhite quail, the ruffled grouse, and the Hungarian (gray) partridge. Small game includes cottontail rabbits, foxes, and squirrels, while larger species include deer. Iowa has well over one hundred species of fish. The most common are the largemouth bass, the channel catfish, and the bluegill. The state also has two federally endangered species—the pallid sturgeon and the Topeka shiner. There are approximately four hundred species of birds documented in Iowa; of these, almost two hundred species nest in the state.

During the era before European settlement, and even until the early nineteenth century, Iowa was full of wild game, both large and small. Bison and elk roamed the state's pre-statehood landscape. Lewis and Clark, whose westward expedition passed through Iowa in 1804, discovered plentiful deer and beaver, as well as wild birds such as pelicans. In the nineteenth century, White settlers eventually drove out populations of white-tailed deer, black bear, and wolves. It took twentieth-century environmental programs to reintroduce the deer, turkey, and other species to Iowa.

Climate: Iowa has a continental climate marked by strong contrasts—the state has cold, snowy winters and hot summers that include droughts and thunderstorms. Most of Iowa's rain (an average of 31 inches) falls in the summer months, causing severe flooding and erosion. The average annual temperature is around 47 degrees Fahrenheit. The average summer temperature is near 73 degrees, while the average for winter is about 21 degrees.

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Major Colleges and Universities

• Allen College (Waterloo)
• Buena Vista University (Storm Lake)
• Central College (Pella)
• Clarke University (Dubuque)
• Cornell College (Mount Vernon)
• Des Moines University (Des Moines)
• Drake University (Des Moines)
• Graceland University (Lamoni)
• Iowa State University (Ames)
• Iowa Wesleyan University (Mount Pleasant)
• Morningside College (Sioux City)
• Northwestern College (Orange City)
• St. Ambrose University (Davenport)
• Simpson College (Indianola)
• University of Dubuque (Dubuque)
• University of Iowa (Iowa City)
• University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls)
• Upper Iowa University (Fayette)
• Waldorf University (Forest City)
• William Penn University (Oskaloosa)

Major Museums

• Blanden Memorial Art Museum (Fort Dodge)
• Des Moines Art Center (Des Moines)
• Figge Art Museum (Davenport)
• Fort Museum and Frontier Village (Fort Dodge)
• Grout Museum (Waterloo)
• Museum of Natural History, University of Iowa (Iowa City)
• National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium (Dubuque)
• Putnam Museum and Science Center (Davenport)
• Sanford Museum and Planetarium (Cherokee)
• Science Center of Iowa (Des Moines)
• Sioux City Public Museum (Sioux City)
• State Historical Museum of Iowa (Des Moines)
• Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum (Decorah)

Major Libraries

• Cowles Library, Drake University (Des Moines)
• Des Moines Public Library (Des Moines)
• Hans J. Chryst Archival Library (Waterloo)
• Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum (West Branch)
• State Historical Society of Iowa Library (Des Moines, Iowa City)
• State Library of Iowa (Des Moines)
• University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)

Media

Iowa has several newspapers, with the most prominent based in the larger cities. These include the Des Moines Register; the Daily Iowan and the Iowa City Press-Citizen in Iowa City; the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque; the Mason City Globe Gazette; and the Sioux City Journal. There are also numerous major agricultural weeklies, including the Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman, and Iowa Farmer Today (Cedar Rapids).

There are numerous broadcast sources in Iowa, with radio and television stations located around the state.

ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

• Gross domestic product (in millions $USD): 231,107.8 (ranked 31st) (2022 estimate)
• GDP percent change: -1.5%

Major Industries: In 2022 the largest industry in Iowa was finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing, which accounted for 22.9 percent of the state's GDP. The second largest industry was government and government enterprises, which accounted for 10.9 percent of GDP. Durable goods manufacturing also accounted for around 10.9 percent of GDP.

Manufacturing in Iowa includes the manufacture of appliances, electronics, and chemicals. The state's mining industry is small but produces important industrial materials such as cement, stone, and gravel. Iowa's cities, especially Des Moines ("the Hartford of the West"), are important Midwestern centers for finance and insurance.

Tourism: Iowa has a strong tourism industry, with domestic travel spending typically bringing billions of dollars to the state each year, both directly and in tax revenues. Like other states, Iowa saw a major drop in tourism in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the industry soon began to recover. Cities such as Des Moines offer cultural attractions including arts centers and symphony orchestras. People with an interest in history can visit sites such as the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in his hometown of West Branch. Eastern Iowa is the home of the Amana Colonies, a utopian settlement founded by German-speaking immigrants founded in the mid-nineteenth century.

Energy Production: Iowa's power plants include a mix of fuel sources, including renewable resources, coal, and natural gas. In 2019 wind power surpassed coal in generation of electricity in Iowa for the first time, and by 2022 wind power generated 62 percent of the Iowa's electricity—the highest wind power share for any state. The state is also the largest producer of fuel ethanol in the United States, producing approximately one fourth of the country's output capacity, and a leader in biodiesel production as well. Iowa had one nuclear power plant, the Duane Arnold facility, which operated from 1975 to 2020.

Agriculture: Iowa is one of the nation's most agriculturally dependent states, with around 30,600,000 acres of land used for farm operations. It is a national leader in production of both corn and eggs. Hogs, corn, and soybeans are other agricultural products valued in the billions of dollars annually.

Airports: Iowa has eight commercial-service airports and around one hundred general-aviation airports. The commercial facilities include Des Moines International (Des Moines), Eastern Iowa Airport (Cedar Rapids), Southwest Iowa Regional (Burlington), and Dubuque Regional (Dubuque). Many of the general-aviation facilities are municipal. Des Moines International Airport has been designated by the US Customs Service as an official Port of Entry, for purposes of collecting customs duties.

Seaports: Iowa has a number of river ports on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, to handle freight barges. On the Mississippi, there are facilities in sites including Burlington, Davenport, Dubuque, Muscatine, and Keokuk. On the Missouri, there are barge terminals in places including Council Bluffs, Sergeant Bluff, and Sioux City.

GOVERNMENT

• Governor: Kim Reynolds (Republican)
• Present constitution date: September 3, 1857
• Electoral votes: 6
• Number of counties: 99
• Violent crime rate: 303.5 (per 100,000 residents) (2020 estimate)
• Death penalty: No (abolished in 1965)

Constitution: The present state constitution was adopted in 1857. The original constitution was adopted in 1846, at the time of statehood.

Branches of Government

Executive: The governor of Iowa is the state's highest executive officer, and is elected to a four-year term. Duties include proposing, signing, and vetoing legislation; making various appointments to the executive branch; granting pardons; and serving as commander-in-chief of state military forces. The lieutenant governor becomes acting governor in case of the incumbent's death, disability, or removal from office, and fulfills any other duties as given by the governor.

Other constitutional officers include the secretary of state, the auditor of state, the treasurer of state, the secretary of agriculture, and the attorney general.

Legislative: The Iowa General Assembly has two houses—the State Senate (upper house) has fifty members, while the House of Representatives (the lower house) has one hundred members.

Judicial: Iowa's judicial system includes the State Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and the District Courts. The State Supreme Court is the court of final resort for legal appeals, handles matters of constitutional law, and has original jurisdiction over matters such as lawyer discipline and legislative redistricting. There are seven justices on the Supreme Court; they elect the chief justice by majority vote from their own numbers. The Court of Appeals, an intermediate appellate body created in 1976, hears cases that the Supreme Court assigns. It has nine justices, who elect the court's chief judge from their own numbers. The District Courts (or trial courts) are courts of general jurisdiction; they handle all civil, criminal, and juvenile cases, as well as all issues of probate.

HISTORY

1673 French explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, traveling down the Mississippi River, are the first Europeans known to visit what is now Iowa.

1735 Capt. Nicholas Joseph des Noyelles, a French colonial official, leads a military expedition of eighty Frenchmen and about 200 American Indians into Iowa against the Sac and Fox tribes.

1788 French Canadian trader Julien Dubuque makes a treaty with Fox chiefs at Prairie du Chien to lease land containing lead deposits. There he builds a settlement that later bears his name. This is the first European settlement in what is now Iowa.

1796 Julien Dubuque receives a land-grant from Spain for his settlement. At this time, "Iowa" is part of the Louisiana Territory, which Spain received from France following Britain's victory in the French and Indian War.

1803 The United States acquires the region now known as Iowa as part of the $15 million Louisiana Purchase from France. President Thomas Jefferson appoints Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead an expedition to explore the new territory.

1804–06 The Lewis and Clark Expedition takes place. The "Corps of Discovery," led by Lewis and Clark, departs St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1804, reaching the southwestern corner of present-day Iowa in July. There they meet with chiefs of the Otoe and Missouri tribes in order to establish friendly relations. Lewis and Clark call the site "Council Bluffs" in memory of the occasion.

1835 Lt. Col. Stephen W. Kearney of the US Army leads an expedition along the Des Moines River. Lt. Albert M. Lea, a member of the expedition, later publishes a book. This volume is the first to refer to the region itself as "Iowa." Kearney had made previous expeditions to the region in the 1820s.

1838 The Iowa Territory is organized. The territorial capital is originally at Burlington, but it is moved by 1841 to Iowa City.

1832 The Black Hawk War. The Sac and Fox tribes under Chief Black Hawk battle White settlers in southern Illinois in an effort to take back their lands there. US troops and local militia defeat them and force them back out of the region. The Sac and Fox are forced to cede to the federal government much of their territory on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River. This US victory opens up the Iowa region for White settlement.

1839 The territorial legislature establishes a system of public education.

1844 Iowa Territory fails in its first effort at statehood, due to outstanding boundary disputes.

1846 Iowa enters the Union on December 28, 1846, as the nation's twenty-ninth state. That same year, Mormons from Illinois begin migrating westward to escape persecution. Their path takes them through Iowa.

1847 On February 25, the state charters the University of Iowa. Located in Iowa City, the school opens for classes in March 1855. The original campus is the state's Old Capitol Building and the surrounding land.

1854Rock Island, Illinois—directly across the Mississippi River from Davenport, Iowa—gains its first railroad.

1855 The Amana Colonies, a utopian settlement founded by German-speaking immigrants, is founded in eastern Iowa. The founders belong to a religious group known as the Community of True Inspiration, an offshoot of the Lutheran "Pietist" movement, which emphasizes religious experience rather than formalized worship and doctrine. They come to Iowa from "Ebenezer," a similar settlement established near Buffalo, New York, in the 1840s. By the end of the 1860s, the Amana settlement includes seven villages and over 20,000 acres of land.

1856 The Mesquakie return to Iowa and establish an eighty-acre settlement along the Iowa River in Tama County.

1857 The state legislature moves the capital from Iowa City to Des Moines, which is more centrally located.

1858 The state establishes free public education. Part of the provision for higher education is the establishment of the State Agricultural College and Model Farm (the later Iowa State University).

1850s Iowa, a border state, becomes caught up in the national debate over slavery. The state has an active Underground Railroad helping fugitive slaves to freedom. The state becomes firmly anti-slavery, even though pockets of pro-Southern sympathizers remain.

1861–65 The Civil War. About 78,000 Iowan men serve in the Union forces during the war. The overall population is strongly for the Northern cause, but there are small groups of pro-Southern feeling. The state turns its agricultural power to the aid of the Union cause, providing large quantities of grain and livestock to the war effort. Iowa war heroes include Gen. Grenville Mellen Dodge, who helped rebuild Southern railroad lines to improve Union troop movement.

1868–69 The State Agricultural College and Model Farm, now a land-grant school under the terms of the Morrill Act, opens for classes. The first students graduate in 1872.

1869 The State Supreme Court rules that Iowa cannot deny women the right to practice law. Arabella Mansfield of Iowa thus becomes the first practicing female lawyer in any state in the Union.

1873 Mary B. Wilkinson graduates from the University of Iowa's Law Department, as the school's first female graduate. She is possibly the first woman in America to earn a law degree. That same year, in the case of Coger v. The North Western Union Packet Company, the State Supreme Court rules that African American steamboat passengers are entitled to the same rights and privileges as White passengers. The case involves an African American woman who was forced to leave the steamboat's dining car, even though she had an unrestricted ticket.

1875 The Iowa State Teachers' College is established. The school later becomes the University of Northern Iowa.

1879 The Law Department of the University of Iowa confers a law degree on its first African American graduate, Alexander Clark Jr., the son of Ambassador Alexander Clark. He is one of the first African Americans in the United States to earn a law degree.

1884 The state passes legislation prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages.

1890s The Populists become a major force in US politics, especially in Midwestern states such as Iowa. The Populist party platform calls for increased printing of paper currency. Another major demand is for nationalization of railroads and telecommunications.

1896 Ames native Billy Sunday, a former professional baseball player, leads a revival in Garner. This launches him on a full-time career as a traveling evangelist. He is the most successful evangelist in the nation during the early twentieth century.

1898 The State Agricultural College and Model Farm is renamed the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

1909 The state reorganizes the system of public higher education.

1914–18World War I. Approximately 114,000 Iowans serve in the Armed Forces. The state's large German American population faces a great deal of suspicion from other citizens. In the interest of public security, the governor passes an order allowing only English to be spoken in schools and in public places.

1926 The General Assembly passes legislation that allows women to be elected to the legislature.

1930s The Great Depression deeply affects Iowa, especially the state's farmers because of the drop in farm prices. A group of farmers form the Farmers Holiday Association in 1932 to stage protests.

1932 An art colony is established at Stone City. The University of Iowa establishes the world's first educational TV station. The Amana Colonies, facing economic and social changes, decides to end its communal organization. It reorganize as a joint-stock company, the Amana Society, Inc., which maintains ownership and control of the land and other business assets. Amana Refrigeration Inc., maker of home and commercial appliances, is a 1934 outgrowth of this change. The Community of True Inspiration, however, remains the focus of the villages' religious life.

1934 Regionalist artist Grant Wood, painter of the iconic piece American Gothic, joins the University of Iowa faculty as a member of the Department of Graphic and Plastic Arts.

1941–45World War II. Thousands of Iowans serve in the nation's Armed Forces. Waterloo, Iowa, is hit hard in November 1942 by the loss of the five "Fighting Sullivan" brothers, who enlisted together in the Navy. All five brothers are killed in the Battle of Midway, while serving aboard the cruiser USS Juneau. Because of this incident, the Navy Department rules that family members can no longer serve aboard the same ship. President Franklin D. Roosevelt also orders that a destroyer under construction will be renamed USS The Sullivans.

1958James A. Van Allen, a physics professor at the University of Iowa, discovers belts of radiation around the earth. They are eventually named Van Allen belts in his honor. He makes the discovery by using satellite data from Explorer I, the first US earth satellite.

1959 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visits an Iowa farm with President Dwight D. Eisenhower during Khrushchev's official visit to the United States. That same year, the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts is renamed the Iowa State University of Science and Technology.

1969–83 Robert Ray, a Republican, begins a long tenure as governor. He is reelected until 1983.

1976 The state establishes the Court of Appeals as an intermediate appellate body.

1979 Iowan James A. Van Allen discovers radiation belts around the planet Saturn, during the mission of the space probe Pioneer 11.

1980s The state experiences a severe farm crisis, in which agricultural prices drop sharply. Many farmers are forced into bankruptcy, which affects the rest of the state's economy.

1983–99 Terry Branstad, a fellow Republican, succeeds Governor Robert Ray. Like Ray, he serves sixteen years in the gubernatorial office as its thirty-ninth governor. He is reelected as the state’s forty-second governor in 2010, and serves from 2011 to 2017.

1993 Heavy rainfall throughout the spring and summer cause the most severe flooding in Iowa's history, earning the state the nickname the "Sixth Great Lake."

1998 In an effort to gauge the effects of gender differences on learning, classrooms in West Des Moines schools are segregated by sex.

2003 Iowa State University men’s basketball coach Larry Eustachy resigns following reports that he partied with his team following Big 12 Conference road games. Eustachy, who was the highest-paid state employee in Iowa prior to the scandal, accepts a contract settlement from the school.

2006 The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team, which represents the University of Iowa, wins it second Big Ten Conference tournament. The team first won the tournament in 2001.

2009 Iowa's ban against same-sex marriage is ruled unconstitutional by the Iowa Supreme Court, making Iowa the third state in the Union to allow same-sex marriage.

2011 Dan Shechtman, an Iowa State professor of materials science and engineering and a research scientist for the Ames Laboratory (Iowa), wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of quasicrystals. At the time of his award, he was the Philip Tobias professor of materials science at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology).

2013 Iowa State athletic programs are cited for "major violations" by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA discovers seventy-nine rules violations involving more than thirty-three coaches since 2011. The violations, namely phone calls made to recruits, appear to be mostly inadvertent.

2017 Iowa governor Terry Branstad is appointed US ambassador to China by President Donald Trump; Branstad is succeeded by his lieutenant governor, Kim Reynolds, who becomes the state's first female governor.

2019 A 2018 law designed to prohibit the performing of abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat is ultimately struck down as unconstitutional by a state court judge.

2020 Like the rest of the country, Iowa faces the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses and services are closed or limited in an effort to slow the spread of the viral disease.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Bix Beiderbecke, 1903–31 (Davenport) , Jazz musician.

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, 1846–1917 (near Davenport) , Frontier scout; showman.

Johnny Carson, 1925–2005 (Corning) , TV entertainer; talk-show host.

George Horace Gallup, 1901–84 (Jefferson) , Statistician; public-opinion pollster.

Susan Glaspell, 1882–1948 (Davenport) , Playwright; novelist.

Danai Gurira, 1978– (Grinnell), Actor; playwright.

Herbert Hoover, 1874–1964 (West Branch) , Thirty-first president of the United States.

Shawn Johnson, 1992– (Des Moines, IA), Olympic gymnast.

Ann Landers [Esther Pauline Friedman], 1918–2002 (Sioux City) , Advice columnist; twin sister of advice columnist "Dear Abby" [Pauline Esther Friedman].

Cloris Leachman, 1926–2021 (Des Moines) , Actress.

John L. Lewis, 1880–1969 (Lucas County) , Labor leader.

Glenn Miller, 1904–44 (Clarinda) , Big-band leader; composer.

Arabella Mansfield, 1846–1911 (Burlington) , Lawyer; college teacher.

Mahaska, 1784–1834 (near Burlington) , Chief of the Iowa tribe.

Katherine Mulgrew, 1955– (Dubuque), Actor.

Harriet Nelson, 1909–94 (Des Moines) , Actress; starred on TV show Ozzie and Harriet.

Robert D. Ray, 1928–2018 (Des Moines) , Governor.

Harry Reasoner, 1923–91 (Dakota City) , TV newscaster.

Donna Reed, 1921–86 (Denison) , Actor.

Robert Schuller, 1926–2015 (Alton) , Television evangelist.

Wallace Stegner, 1909–93 (Lake Mills) , Novelist; critic.

Billy Sunday, 1862–1935 (Ames) , Baseball player; evangelist.

Henry A. Wallace, 1888–1965 (Adair County) , Agricultural expert; cabinet official; vice president of the United States.

Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, 1970– (Des Moines) , Singer.

John Wayne [Marion Michael Morrison], 1907–79 (Winterset) , Film actor.

Meredith Willson, 1902–84 (Mason City) , Composer.

Grant Wood, 1891–1942 (Anamosa) , Regionalist painter; art professor.

TRIVIA

• Iowa State University in Ames was chartered by the legislature in 1858 as the State Agricultural College and Model Farm. When Iowa became the first to accept the terms of the 1862 Morrill Act, the institution became the nation's first land-grant university. The act provided federal lands to the states in order to fund agricultural and technical schools.
• The Music Man, a musical set in fictitious River City, Iowa, is drawn from composer Meredith Willson's own memories of growing up in Mason City in the early twentieth century.
• The Lewis and Clark Expedition suffered its only casualty in Iowa. Sergeant Charles Floyd took ill and died in August 1804, while the party was traveling through northwestern Iowa. He was buried on a bluff now known as "Sergeants Bluff." The Floyd River is also named for him.
• Amana Refrigeration, Inc., maker of home products including the Amana Radarange Microwave Oven, is an outgrowth of the utopian Amana Colonies founded in Iowa in 1855. The firm, later part of the Whirlpool company, was founded in 1934 by Amana native George C. Foerstner when the colonies were reorganizing their communal structure into a joint-stock company.
• Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are formed entirely by water: the Mississippi River on the east and the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers on the west.
• The word "derecho" was first used to describe a type of particularly powerful wind storm by a University of Iowa professor in the nineteenth century. Though they are relatively rare, Iowa experienced a devastating derecho in August 2020.

Bibliography

Fast Facts 2022 Iowa Tourism. Travel Federation of Iowa, 2022, www.travelfederationofiowa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Fast-Facts-2022.pdf. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.

"History." State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, 2020, iowaculture.gov/history. Accessed 20 Aug. 2020.

"Iowa." Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Department of Commerce, 31 Mar. 2023, apps.bea.gov/regional/bearfacts/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.

"Iowa." QuickFacts, US Census Bureau, 1 July 2022, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/IA/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.

"Iowa: 2020 Census." US Census Bureau, 25 Aug. 2021, www.census.gov/library/stories/state-by-state/iowa-population-change-between-census-decade.html. Accessed 22 Oct. 2021.

"Iowa State Profile and Energy Estimates." US Energy Information Administration, 17 Aug. 2022, www.eia.gov/state/?sid=IA. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.

"2022 State Agriculture Overview: Iowa." US Department of Agriculture, www.nass.usda.gov/Quick‗Stats/Ag‗Overview/stateOverview.php?state=IOWA. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.

Eric Badertscher