What are the most historic towns in Iowa? (Des Moines, Davenport: chapel, home)

[LPerkins33]

Keosauqua is where its at, along with the surrounding villages of Van Buren County

[laajj701]

bellevue is a close 2nd to dubuque for being iowa oldest town/city....they both had settlers dating back to the early 1800 and they both celebrate there age together, i believe they are both 175yrs and counting

[Northern Traveler]

Keokuk has quite a bit of Mormon history as well being so close to Nauvoo, IL.

[iowegian]

Originally Posted by SharpHawkeye

If I had a week, it'd go like this: Start in Davenport, wind up the river via Clinton and Bellevue, hit Dubuque, go down to Cedar Rapids/Iowa City stopping in Dyersville (Field of Dreams/Ertl) and Anamosa (Grant Wood), go over to Des Moines via Hwy 6, stopping at the Amanas on the way. If you had time still, you could bop over to Council Bluffs. Of course, I'm biased toward eastern Iowa.

Originally Posted by pinetar10

is pella historic?

I second both of these, I would add Pella on your way from the Amanas to Des Moines. It's a nice little Dutch town with a historic town square and a large working windmill attached to a museum about Pella's history, not to mention delicious pastries from Jaarsma Bakery

[mofford]

Western Iowa has a few places of historical interst too. You might have a look at the Sergeant Floyd Monument north of Sergeant Bluff. He was the only guy that died on the Lewis and Clark expedition, poor guy, they had to bury him 4 times.

Certainly Spirit Lake holds the most gruesome chapter in Iowa history, with the Spirit Lake Massacre of 1857 (near Arnolds Park there is a monument)

Not to forget southern Iowa, there were confederate raids into farms in Davis county, and safe houses set up for escaping slaves.

Not sure if any of these places would be exciting to visit, but certainly rich in history. Heres a page I ran across from the Iowa national guard about the spirit lake massacre and the northern and southern border brigades.

Spirit Lake Massacre

And heres an interesting little biography of Sergeant Floyd,

http://www.essortment.com/all/sergeantcharles_rwnm.htm

[SEIowaRiver]

Burlington was the state's first capitol and one of the few places you can rent a boat to actually get on Mark Twain's river. Fort Madison's historic site of the original fort from the French-Indian Wars, with its reenactors, is an underlooked stop. The southeast corner of the state had a very active Underground Railroad, with sites located throughout the region.

[WyoNewk]

I'd like to add another couple for consideration as historic towns/areas. Decorah, in the NE corner of the state, and even more so the smaller towns in the area like Guttenberg and Spillville are pretty cool. I just now discovered Spillville is the oldest Czeck village in Iowa. Be sure to visit Bily Clocks. Very interesting.

And if you're sightseeing in westcentral Iowa, Sister cities Elk Horn and Kimballton are nice Danish settlements. Kimballton has a full-scale replica of the Little Mermaid along with a half-scale replica of a Danish windmill. A couple miles away and more tourist-worthy is Elk Horn, the largest rural Danish settlement in the U.S. It has an 1848 windmill that was imported from Denmark several years ago and put back together piece-by-piece and a little museum -- a very nice, well manicured town worth the stop.

[mustang84]

I'm originally from Harlan...it's in Western Iowa about 10 miles north of I-80. The historic courthouse square was renovated in the 1990's and much of the buildings surrounding it restored to their original 1880s-1910s look. I think 36 of them are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Shelby County Courthouse is the centerpiece, built in 1892 of Indiana limestone.

There are quite a few places to eat downtown too...a cajun place, a mexican place, pizza, American, and there's a nice coffee shop on the NW side of the square called Hanson Brothers that also has wireless internet access.

Elk Horn with the famous Danish windmill is also in the same county. A route I'd suggest taking would be to get off I-80 at the Elk Horn exit, see the windmill, then head north to Highway 44 and follow that to Harlan. Then continue west on Hwy. 44 and south on Highway 30, which will take you into the scenic Loess Hills. You'll meet up again with I-29 not far from Omaha.

[Ben Around]

Check out Bentonsport and Bonaparte in extreme SE Iowa. Very historic, very cool. Off the beaten path.

[unipanthers!]

In Elk Horn there is a museum in the country. Their is also a windmill in town in Elk Horn that has souvenirs and tours. The windmill just got re shingled too, it looks very nice. There is a hotel right across from it and in the beginning of summer there is tivoli fest which is a big danish festival and there are viking reenactments and lots of things to do including a play. There is also a viking house that is only open during Tivoli. You can also go about three miles further and see the mermaid in Kimballton.