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ABOUT IOWA
From fascinating museums and historic sites to theme parks and art galleries, IOWA offers attractions galore. Motels and hotels across the state afford relaxing getaways and access to hundreds of miles of hiking and biking trails. There is plenty of golf, and rivers and lakes provide opportunities for boating and fishing. The Mississippi forms the eastern border of Iowa and offers riverboat excursions, floating casinos, scenic drives, ancient burial mounds, and beautiful vistas.
The AMANA COLONIES are seven German villages, all designated as National Historic Landmarks, which feature working artisans, museums, restaurants, brewery, wineries, furniture, antique & specialty shops, and Iowa's only operating woollen-mill.
The college town of AMES has its own charm and its own attractions, but it is also close to several nearby attractions: The Country Relics Village at Stanhope is a scaled down version of an early 1900s village, Story City, 10 mile north of Ames, brings Scandinavia to life and has an antique carousel, and at Boone, just 15 miles west of Ames, the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad takes visitors across the 156-foot trestle overlooking Des Moines River Valley.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa's second-largest city, offers a wealth of attractions from Duffys Collectible Cars to the National Czech & Slovan Museum and Library, and Ushers Ferry Historic Village, a small Iowa town at the turn of the century; there are guided tours of Brucemore, a Queen Anne-style mansion in a 26-acre park-like estate; other attractions are Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cornell College, a scenic National Register of Historic Places campus which includes the Anderson Geology MuseumWeb, The History Center, and three floors of hands-on exhibits at Science Station.
Many national trails converged in the COUNCIL BLUFFS area, including the Lewis and Clark, California, Mormon Pioneer and Oregon trails; the Western Historic Trails Center commemorates these heroic journeys, as does the RailsWest Railroad Museum & HO Model Railroad; the Lewis and Clark Monument and Scenic Overlook honors the first council held by Lewis & Clark and Native Americans; Council Bluffs was named for this historic meeting; visitors are also drawn to the Historic General Dodge House, a lavish, historically authentic Victorian home; and the Squirrel Cage Jail, a 1885 unique "human rotary" jail.
The 23-karat golden dome of the State Capitol of Iowa towering above DES MOINES is a favorite of sightseers; at the Living History Farms which tells the story of Midwestern agriculture and rural life, interpreters dressed in period costume recreate the daily routines of early Iowans; historic Valley Junction is a renovated railroad district with a collection of more than 120 retail businesses; at Fort Des Moines visitors can see the historic fort in its heyday from 1901 through World War II; and for fun there is the Science Center of Iowa and Adventureland, a resort which includes an amusement park.
Nestled in the limestone bluffs along the Mississippi River, DUBUQUE attractions include the Field of Dreams Movie Site, the quiet, quaint 94-year-old family farm with a baseball diamond carved into its heart, Central Lake Cave, which has 3,000 feet of well-lit passageways, and the Mississippi River Museum where visitors explore 300 years of river history with life-size exhibits and hands-on displays.
Nearby at DYERSVILLE is the National Farm Toy Museum, which offers an array of farm toys, trucks, banks, and other toys of interest to both the serious collector and casual visitor.
Effigy Mounds National Monument near HARPERS FERRY commemorates 200 prehistoric American Indian burial and ceremonial mounds along the Mississippi River Bluffs.
IOWA CITY/CORALVILLE attractions include the Mormon Handcart Site, an historic marker and short walking trail commemorating the Mormon Trek from Coralville; other attractions include the Museum of Natural History and the Old Capitol Museum.
The IOWA GREAT LAKES resort region, fun in both summer and winter, offers amusement parks, including Arnolds Park, water parks, summer theater, live concerts, golfing, biking & hiking trails.
A walking tour of KEOKUK’s historic district is worthwhile: the Verity at the George M. Verity Riverboat Museum was one of the first steamboats to move barges on the Mississippi between St. Louis and St. Paul; embedded in shale outcroppings or visibly exposed in creek beds, Keokuk geodes delight rockhounds.
MADISON COUNTY is famous as the birthplace of John Wayne and for historic covered bridges; it has been popularised by Robert James Waller's novel, The Bridges of Madison County and the movie.
MARSHALLTOWN visitors can explore the pre-Civil War Glick-Sower Heritage Homestead and the Marshall County Historical Museum.
MASON CITY is hailed as the "original river city" since it is the boyhood home of Meredith Willson, author of Music Man; Mason City offers a number of attractions including Bil Baird's puppets at the Charles MacNider Museum, an abundance of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture plus, several unique festivals. Everything about
PELLA is Dutch – from its canal, Dutch architecture and 1850's windmill to the oldest of treasures, its museums and sites dedicated to the people of Pella.
Davenport and Bettendorf are the two QUAD CITIES in Iowa (the other two, in Illinois, are Moline and Rock Island); this was one of the first destinations in the United States to offer Riverboat Casinos; visitors can experience the historic Village of East Davenport, Walnut Grove Pioneer Village in Long Grove, the Putnam Museum, the Davenport Museum of Art and the Family Museum.
At SIOUX CITY one of the prime attractions of this Missouri River city on the shoreline of the prairie, where legendary explorers Lewis and Clark left their mark, is the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail; also worth visiting is the Mid-America Air Museum.
WATERLOO is home to the Bluedorn Science Imaginarium, a fun way to experiment with physics, light, sound and momentum; along the banks of the scenic Cedar River is the Waterloo Museum of Art; Silos & Smokestacks is a collection of over 60 privately-owned historic sites throughout Northeast Iowa which tells the story of Iowa’s contribution to the Agricultural Revolution.
WEST BRANCH is the birthplace of Herbert Clark Hoover and the must-see attraction is the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum which commemorates the life of a great humanitarian.
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