The Amana Colonies are a group of settlements of German Pietists comprising seven villages listed as National Historic Landmarks. Drainage networks are well established, though stream gradients usually are low and some scattered areas of poor drainage and original wetlands occur. [108] The shift from rural to urban has caused population increases in more urbanized counties such as Dallas, Johnson, Linn, Polk, and Scott, at the expense of more rural counties.

During the tens to hundreds of thousands of years since the various Pleistocene glaciers melted from Iowa, rivers have carved the state’s valleys and partially filled them with layered deposits of gravel, sand, silt, and clay. ", "Oil, Gas, and Metallic Mineral Regulatory Information", http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/OPINION03/807020346/1110, http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/NEWS01/807090324/1079, http://www.igsb.uiowa.edu/Browse/dinosaurs/age_of_dinosaurs_in_iowa.htm, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060626123721.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20080513085937/http://cairo.gis.iastate.edu/, http://www.usgs.gov/state/state.asp?State=IA, http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/WebSoilSurvey.aspx, https://web.archive.org/web/20061113181444/http://soils.usda.gov/technical/classification/osd/index.html, https://web.archive.org/web/20081004055910/http://www.iowageology.org/, https://web.archive.org/web/20080605050513/http://www.uiowa.edu/~geology/, http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm4/index_calvin.php?CISOROOT=/calvin, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Geography_of_Iowa&oldid=966531040, Articles with dead external links from October 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles lacking in-text citations from November 2019, Articles needing additional references from November 2019, All articles needing additional references, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. President Martin Van Buren appointed Robert Lucas governor of the territory, which at the time had 22 counties and a population of 23,242. Although glaciation has erased all surface evidence of the impact, the bedrock associated with this impact is unique in Iowa.[2]. As in most of the U.S., surface water in Iowa is never safe to drink untreated, contamination by agricultural runoff including nitrates, herbicides, pesticides, and animal waste is common, though the Clean Water Act has helped. [196], Iowa is served by several regional airports including the Des Moines International Airport, the Eastern Iowa Airport, in Cedar Rapids, Quad City International Airport, in Moline, Illinois, and Eppley Airfield, in Omaha, Nebraska. Like the Iowan Surface, the Northwest Iowa Plains are rolling hills consisting of eroded soils developed since pre-Wisconsinan glaciation, but with significant amounts of loess. By the time European explorers and traders visited Iowa, American Indians were largely settled farmers with complex economic, social, and political systems. [74], Almost immediately after achieving territorial status, a clamor arose for statehood. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? [10][11] Recent earthquakes centered in Oklahoma have also been felt in Iowa, but have caused no damage. That has been part of Iowa's rules since the beginning, in 1972, and it matters on the margins. The geography of Iowa includes the study of bedrock, landforms, rivers, geology, paleontology and urbanisation of the U.S. state of Iowa.The state covers an area of 56,272.81 sq mi (145,746 km 2). Along with the New Hampshire primary the following week, Iowa's caucuses have become the starting points for choosing the two major-party candidates for president. Sioux City is the largest city in western Iowa and is found on the convergence of the Missouri, Floyd, and Big Sioux Rivers. The southern Iowa drift plain covers most of the southern half of Iowa. Geodes are common around Geode State Park in Henry County.[17]. It is time well spent to look closely at these large and small drainageways, for they demonstrate the most significant geological process presently at work on the Iowa landscape the action of water. Iowa's bedrock geology generally increases in age from west to east. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. In general, soils of southern, eastern, and western Iowa are loess-derived, while soils of northern and central Iowa are till-derived. [225] It was struck down in January 2019, when an Iowa state judge ruled that the "fetal heartbeat" law was unconstitutional. Only these largest segments of the Alluvial Plains region stand out at the scale of the map. The Missouri and Mississippi river boundaries are as they were mapped in the 19th century, which can vary from their modern courses. The Mississippi and Missouri are Iowa's most important rivers. [127], English is the most common language in Iowa, used by 94% of the population. The John Deere Classic is a PGA Tour golf event held in the Quad Cities since 1971. [242] What's Eating Gilbert Grape, based on the Peter Hedges novel of the same name, is set in the fictional Iowa town of Endora. Boone and What Cheer were important in the late 19th century. She holds a Certificate of Advanced Study in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from California State University. 3,155,070. In extreme western Iowa the loess deposits accumulated to form what are known today as the Loess Hills, a line of bluffs 100 to 200 feet (30 to 60 metres) above the Missouri River valley. Announcing our NEW encyclopedia for Kids! [258][259] Iowa has four Class A minor league teams in the Midwest League: the Burlington Bees, Cedar Rapids Kernels, Clinton LumberKings, and the Quad Cities River Bandits. Other factors negatively affecting Iowa's environment include the extensive use of older coal-fired power plants,[34] fertilizer and pesticide runoff from crop production,[35] and diminishment of the Jordan Aquifer. Cedar Falls is home of the University of Northern Iowa. A total of 39 ethanol plants produced 3.1 billion US gallons (12,000,000 m3) of fuel in 2009.[178]. Black Hawk took part in the siege of Fort Madison. Occasional small earthquakes occur near Fremont County in the far southwest, and the Sioux City area can occasionally be shaken by nearby tremblors. The Sioux City Hornets play in the American Basketball Association. Accompanying the last two stages of glaciation were extensive deposits of windblown silt, or loess. The average annual temperature at Des Moines is 50 °F (10 °C); for some locations in the north, such as Mason City, the figure is about 45 °F (7 °C), while Keokuk, on the Mississippi River, averages 52 °F (11 °C). The Iowa Great Lakes is made up of multiple small towns, such as Spirit Lake, Arnolds Park, Milford, and Okoboji. 500 million years ago. Semken and Brenzel (2007) One Sloth Becomes Three. Some smaller communities, such as Denison and Storm Lake, have mitigated this population loss through gains in immigrant laborers. A well-established branching network of streams reaches out over all of northwestern Iowa, providing effective drainage and a uniformly creased land surface. [23][24], The NRCS divides Iowa into 23 soil regions. Menu Menu Close. Paleozoic Plateau: If Iowa’s landscape had to be divided into only two regions, one would be northeastern Iowa and the other would include everything else. After the 2010 United States Census and the resulting redistricting, Iowa lost one seat in Congress, falling to four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Statistics of the Population", "Florida is about to ban sanctuary cities. 21% responded with non-religious, and 1% did not answer. [79], Much of Iowa's support for the Union can be attributed to Samuel J. Kirkwood, its first wartime governor. Maquoketa Caves State Park, near Maquoketa, contains more caves than any other state park.

Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east and the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west. Every year in early May, the city of Orange City holds the annual Tulip Festival, a celebration of the strong Dutch heritage in the region.[134]. No other language is spoken by more than 0.5 percent of the Iowa population.

[17] Carter Lake, Iowa, is the only city in the state located west of the Missouri River. Fort Dodge is home of The Fort historical museum and the Blanden Art Museum, and host Frontiers Days which celebrate the town history. Prior[18] divides Iowa into eight landforms based on glaciation, soils, topography, and river drainage: Also known as the Driftless Area, this region of scenic, high relief landscapes includes such features as resistant, bluff-forming bedrock outcrops, deep V-shaped valleys, caves, springs, and sinkholes. Lee County has two county seats because there were disagreements between the two about which would be the county seat after Keokuk was established in 1847. [181][182][183] Iowa is also headquarters to other companies including Hy-Vee, Pella Corporation, Vermeer Company, Kum & Go gas stations, Von Maur, Pioneer Hi-Bred, and Fareway. Omissions? [1], Seventy-four million years ago, a large asteroid crashed into what is now southeast Pocahontas county creating the Manson crater. 3) Following the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. had a hard time controlling the Iowa region and built several forts throughout the area after conflicts like the War of 1812. [14], Although Iowa's bedrock is generally younger in western parts of the state, one exception is a small part of far northwest Iowa where Precambrian Sioux quartzite bedrock is found in northwest Lyon County. The state’s terrain and rich soils are the products of the continental ice sheets that periodically covered the state during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago). [200] The Libertarian Party obtained official political party status in 2017 as a result of presidential candidate Gary Johnson receiving 3.8% of the Iowa vote in the 2016 general election.

The rugged, deeply carved terrain seen in the Paleozoic Plateau is so unlike the remainder of the state that the contrast is unmistakable, even to a casual observer. Its gently rolling landscape rises slowly as it extends westward from the Mississippi River, which forms its entire eastern border. Iowa's geographic center (and conflicting accounts thereof) According to the website "America's Roof" (link kaput), the geographic center of the state of Iowa is at 42.0667 degrees north latitude and 93.4 degrees west longitude (decimal), or 42°4'N, 93°24'W.