Introduction to History of Iowa
Nomadic hunters entered what is now Iowa as early as 10,000 B.C., coming on foot. Around 1000 B.C., other Indians, mound builders of the Adena culture, arrived probably by canoe or dugout. They established permanent settlements along larger streams and engaged in farming. After 1200 A.D., warlike tribes entered Iowa and displaced the mound builders of a later culture, the Mississipian. Among these later arrivals were the Iowa, Oto, and Winnebago.
Important dates in Iowa1673 Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette of France became the first white people to see the Iowa region.1762 France ceded part of its colony of Louisiana, including Iowa, to Spain.1788 Julien Dubuque, Iowa's first white settler, began mining lead near present-day Dubuque.1800 Spain ceded the Louisiana region back to France.1803 The U.S. acquired Iowa in the Louisiana Purchase.1808 The U.S. Army built Fort Madison.1832 Indians led by Chief Black Hawk were defeated by the U.S. Army in the Black Hawk War.1833 Permanent settlements began in the Iowa region.1834 Congress attached the area to the Territory of Michigan for governmental purposes.1836 Congress created the Territory of Wisconsin, which included Iowa, Minnesota, and most of the Dakotas.1838 Congress created the Territory of Iowa.1846 Iowa became the 29th state on December 28.1857 The legislature adopted Iowa's present Constitution.1867 The first railroad was completed across Iowa, from the Mississippi River to Council Bluffs.1873 Grange members opposed the practices of railroads serving farmers and won control of the legislature.1913 The Keokuk Dam was completed.1917 Iowa began an extensive road-building program.1920's-1933 Many Iowa farmers lost their land through failure to make mortgage payments.Mid-1930's-1940's Legislation was passed to help Iowa farmers.1962 The Iowa court system was reorganized.Mid-1970's Manufacturing overtook agriculture as a source of income in Iowa.1985 The state established a lottery to raise revenue.1993 Floods caused more than $2 billion in property and crop damage in Iowa.European Exploration and Settlement
The first Europeans to visit Iowa were the French explorers Father Pierre Marquette and Louis Joliet, who were journeying down the Mississippi River in 1673. Landing on the west bank, probably near the mouth of the Iowa River, they claimed the area for France. A more formal claim was made by the Sieur de La Salle in 1682 when he took possession of the entire Mississippi Valley for France and named it Louisiana. In 1762 France ceded Louisiana west of the river to Spain.
A French-Canadian fur trader, Julien Dubuque, came in 1788 to the site of the city that now bears his name. He gained permission from the Fox tribe to manage lead mines they had established there, indicating he could make the operation more profitable for them all. He became the first white settler in what is now Iowa.
Spain returned the Louisiana territory to France in 1800, and in 1803 it was purchased by the United States. The Lewis and Clark expedition, passing up the Missouri River in 1804, explored the western edge of Iowa. Zebulon Pike, on an expedition to the upper Mississippi in 1805, traveled along the eastern Iowa border.
In 1812 Iowa was included in the newly formed Territory of Missouri. When Missouri became a state in 1821, Iowa was left without organization and government. Following the Black Hawk War in 1832, all Indians were moved out of the eastern part of Iowa and their lands were surrendered to the federal government. White settlers began coming in, and communities grew up at Dubuque, Davenport, Burlington, and Fort Madison.
In 1834 Iowa was attached to Michigan Territory; in 1836, to Wisconsin Territory. There were further cessions of Indian lands in 1836–37, and in 1838 the Iowa Territory was formed, including Minnesota and parts of North and South Dakota. Iowa City was founded as the territorial capital.
Dubuque, pictured here in the 1850's, was the first permanent white settlement in Iowa. Its early development was based on lead mining and lumbering.The population of Iowa grew from less than 50 white settlers in 1832 to more than 43,000 in 1840. More Indian tribes were expelled in the 1840's, and the Des Moines area began to be settled. With its present boundaries, Iowa was admitted to the Union as the 29th state in 1846. An Iowa-Missouri boundary dispute was settled in 1851, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of Iowa.
The Sioux Indians ceded their Iowa lands in 1851, but a group of Sioux attacked the settlers around Spirit Lake in 1857 and massacred 33 persons. Also in 1857 the state capital was moved to Des Moines. At about the same time a religious group founded a cooperative community, consisting of Amana and six other villages, near Iowa City. The community, called the Amana Society, became one of the most successful communal organizations in the country.
Modern Development
After the Civil War Iowa entered an era of railway building that resulted in a network connecting every part of the state. Most of Iowa's population at this time was engaged in agriculture. During the hard times of the 1870's and 1880's, farmers' organizations such as the Grange were established and resulting political movements such as Populism gained favor. Corn gradually replaced wheat as the leading crop, and hogs became a major product.
As agriculture was mechanized, migration from the farms to the cities provided manpower for factories. With construction of the Keokuk Dam hydroelectric plant, 1905–13, Iowa entered a period of industrial growth.
Since the mid-20th century, agriculture and manufacturing have been prosperous enterprises. In the 1960's, Iowa, which had long been rural and conservative, began to become more urban and liberal. Also, a program to promote industrialization was begun. During the recession of the early 1980's, unemployment in the state, particularly in the agricultural-equipment industry, reached its highest level since the Great Depression. The economy improved in the mid-1980's. To raise revenue, the state legislature in 1989 enacted a law that allowed riverboat gambling, beginning in 1991. In 1993 floodwaters from the Mississippi and its tributaries caused extensive property damage.
State population began to increase again by 2000. According to that year's census, the population grew by 5 ½ per cent in the 1990's.