French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette are
believed to be the first Europeans to visit Iowa. They
described Iowa as lush, green, and fertile.
Iowa has been home to approximately 17 different tribes.
Today, only the Meskwaki tribe, living in Tama County, is left
in Iowa.
The first white settlers officially moved to Iowa in June
1833. Primarily, they were families from Ohio, Pennsylvania,
New York, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia.
Iowa became the 29th state in the union on December 28, 1846.
The Chicago and North Western Railway reached Council Bluffs
in 1867. Council Bluffs was designated the eastern terminus
for the Union Pacific Railroad. The completion of five major
railroads across Iowa brought major economic changes as well
as travel opportunities.
During the American Civil War A small battle fought at
Athens, MO in 1861 resulted in a few shots landing in
Croton, Iowa; a raid into Davis and Van Buren counties by
Confederate guerrillas was stopped by Home Guards in October
1864.
The Iowa General Assembly passed a women's suffrage amendment
in 1870.
Iowa saw a large increase in farming of beef, corn, and pork
during World War I, but farmers saw economic hardships after
the war. These hardships were the result of the removal of
war-time farm subsidies. Total recovery did not happen until
the 1940s.
Iowa had been a large supporter of alcohol prohibition.
The Farm Crisis of the 1980's saw a major decline of family
farms in Iowa and around the Midwest, and it was marked by a
sharp drop in the state's rural population.
Although Iowa's primary industry is agriculture, it also
produces refrigerators, washing machines, fountain pens, farm
implements, and food products that are shipped around the
world.
Herbert
Hoover, the 31st President of the United States, was born in
West Branch, Iowa.American film actor John Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa in
1907.
Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, worked
at Davenport, Iowa's radio station, WOC, as a sports announcer
for University of Iowa games in 1932. In 1933 he became the
chief sports announcer for WOC's sister station in Des Moines,
WHO.
