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Civil War era brass and lead knuckles The late Ruby Sutton Batchelor lived in Keokuk Falls in 1917 and attended its “nice white frame schoolhouse.” Her father, Dr. Owen Sutton, saw patients and displayed medicines in the downstairs saloon of one of the old hotels and the family lived upstairs. She remembered the falls “were pretty and had big rocks with clear water cascading over them.” Due to its location on the boundary between Oklahoma and Indian Territories, Keokuk Falls became a kind of “no man’s land” and therefore a haven for liquor online roulette canada fire, prostitution and gambling. Well known gangsters often stopped to partake of its vices. Keokuk lived in a log cabin west of the town site and his great-grandfather was the first person buried in the Keokuk Falls cemetery. Town founder, Henry C. Jones, also a Sac and Fox, traded for Keokuk’s land, became its first postmaster and owned a store there. 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Primary countries of origin included Germany. Mexico, Laos. Canada. Korea. and Vietnam . Despite severe economic dislocations in most segments of Iowa's economy during the latter twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Iowans remain unchanged in major ways. They continue to express strong support for public education and to produce well-educated young people who often score highest in the nation on college entrance exams. Iowa communities remain stable, with community institutions—family, church, and school—in-tact and still held in high esteem. Although the state now experiences a balance between rural and urban interests and between agriculture and other industries, its character is still defined largely by the culture of its small towns and its agricultural preeminence. As Iowans experience the twenty-first century, they remain somewhat conservative in their politics, usually liberal in their social thinking, and almost always optimistic about their economic future. Among Iowa's colorful native sons were Buffalo Bill Cody, labor leader John L. Lewis. and baseball player–evangelist Billy Sunday. Other public figures associated with the state are James Wilson, U.S. secretary of agriculture for 16 years (1897–1913), and the noted members of the Wallace family—Henry Wallace, Henry Cantwell Wallace, and Henry Agard Wallace. Herbert C. Hoover and Harry L. Hopkins were born in Iowa. Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, which contains Hoover's birthplace, childhood home, and grave, and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library are at West Branch. In 2003, Iowa had 4,248 mi (6,839 km) of track, including 2,849 route miles (4,587 km) of Class I track operated by four railroads. Amtrak operates the long-distance California Zephyr (Chicago to Oakland, California) and Southwest Chief (Chicago to Los Angeles. California), serving six major stations in Iowa. In 2004, Iowa had 89,700 farms, with an average size of 353 acres (143 hectares) per farm. This total represents a decrease of 50,000 farms since 1970, although the amount of land being farmed has only declined 1% to 31,700,000 acres (14,400,000 hectares) over the same period. In 2005, there were some 30.5 million visitors to the state. This showed an increase from 17.1 million in 2001. Travel generated expenditures of $4.3 billion in 2002 and increased to $5.0 billion. In 2005, there were over 62,290 travel-related jobs in the state in 2005, generating a $969 million payroll. Travel and tourism is fast becoming one of the major sources of income in Iowa. Overall, Iowa had 37 dailies (21 evening, 16 morning) and 12 Sunday papers in 2005. Also published in Iowa were over 100 periodicals, among them Better Homes and Gardens and Successful Farming, Midwest Today. and The Iowan . Placed under the territorial jurisdiction of Michigan in 1834, and then two years later under the newly created territory of Wisconsin, Iowa became a separate territory in 1838. The first territorial governor, Robert Lucas, extended county boundaries and local government westward, planned for a new capital city to be located on the Iowa River, resisted Missouri's attempt to encroach on Iowa territory, and began planning for statehood by drawing boundary lines that included not only the present state of Iowa but also southern Minnesota up to present-day Minneapolis . After World War II, farmers moved quickly to mechanize farming, using combines, corn pickers, and larger tractors. They also began using chemicals to control weeds and increase yields. Farm acreages increased and farmers began to specialize in corn and soybean production, but they continued to raise large numbers of hogs. These many developments had changed the face of agriculture and the way farm families lived. By 1960, Iowa farms had a new look. Gone were the flocks of chickens, the small dairy herds, and often the large gardens. Farm families had begun to buy their food rather than produce it. With rural electrification, which started in 1935, farm homes could be as modern as town and city homes. As of June 2005, Iowa had 413 insured banks, savings and loans, and saving banks, plus 155 state-chartered and only two federally chartered credit unions (CUs). Excluding the CUs, the Omaha-Council Bluffs market area (which includes portions of Nebraska and Iowa) had the bulk of the state's financial institutions and deposits in 2004 at 74 and $14.442 billion, respectively. The Des Moines area was second with 49 institutions and $9.845 billion in deposits for that same year. As of June 2005, CUs accounted for 9.3% of all assets held by all financial institutions in the state, or some $5.275 billion. Banks, savings and loans, and savings banks collectively accounted for the remaining 90.7% or $51.740 billion in assets held. Council of State Governments. The Book of the States, 2006 Edition. Lexington, Ky. Council of State Governments, 2006. In 2000, there were 61,853 black Americans, 8,989 American Indians, and 82,473 Hispanics and Latinos living in Iowa. In 2004, blacks made up 2.3% of the population, Hispanics and Latinos 3.5%, Asians 1.4%, and American Indians 0.3%. That year, 0.9% of the population reported origin of two or more races. The Iowa Arts Council (IAC) was established as a state agency in 1967. In 1986, the IAC became a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, which also includes the State Historical Society of Iowa. In 2005, state organizations received 16 grants totaling $776,700 from the National Endowment for the Arts. Humanities Iowa, founded in 1971, sponsors over $1.5 million of programs each year. In 2005, the National Endowment for the Humanities sponsored 11 programs with grants totaling $906,482. The state also contributes to the efforts of the Arts Council and Humanities Iowa, and private sources provide additional funding. As of 31 October 2004, the Iowa Department of Public Safety employed 559 full-time sworn officers. As of fall 2002, there were 202,546 students enrolled in institutions of higher education; minority students comprised 8.2% of total postsecondary enrollment. As of 2005, Iowa had 63 degree-granting institutions. Iowa has three state universities and 35 private four-year colleges. Since the public community college system began offering vocational and technical training in 1960, total enrollment has increased rapidly, and the number of different career programs has grown. Iowa's small liberal arts colleges and universities include Briar Cliff College, Sioux City; Coe College, Cedar Rapids; Cornell College, Mt. Vernon; Drake University, Des Moines; Grinnell College, Grinnell; Iowa Wesleyan College, Mt. Pleasant; Loras College, Dubuque; and Luther College, Decorah. The US Census Bureau reports that the three-year average median household income for 2002 – 04 in 2004 dollars was $43,042 compared to a national average of $44,473. During the same period, 9.7% of the population was below the poverty line, as compared to 12.4% nationwide. Wall, Joseph Frazier. Iowa: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton, 1978. The decade of the 1980s brought major change to the agricultural sector as the farm economy suffered a major depression and farmland values plummeted. By mid-decade, news of the farm crisis dominated all statewide media. By the end of the decade, conditions had improved but more than 140,000 people had moved off Iowa farms. Although by the end of the twentieth century, Iowa remained either first or second in production of corn, hogs, and soybeans, approximately 50 percent of farm families augmented their income through off-farm employment. By 2000, the number of Iowa farms had shrunk to 94,000. While many Iowa farmers still raise hogs, a major shift in the countryside has been the development of large-scale hog confinement operations. Large poultry confinement facilities have also been constructed. These changes have produced strong protest, especially from rural residents, because such facilities produce environmental pollution and sometimes reduce their quality of life. ———. "Iowa: The Middle Land." In Heartland: Comparative Histories of the Midwestern States. Edited by James H. Madison. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. According to the US Census Bureau's Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM) for 2004, Iowa's manufacturing sector covered some 18 product subsectors. The shipment value of all products manufactured in the state that same year was $79.469 billion. Of that total, food manufacturing accounted for the largest share at $28.137 billion. It was followed by machinery manufacturing at $13.726 billion; chemical manufacturing at $9.244 billion; transportation equipment manufacturing at $3.770 billion; and fabricated metal product manufacturing at $3.541 billion. Much of Iowa's society may still resemble that depicted in the paintings of Grant Wood. an Iowan, but the state's industrial economy as well as other elements of modernization have altered this image. While on a visit to the United States in 1959, Nikita S. Khrushchev, then premier of the Soviet Union, was invited to a farm in Iowa to observe part of the U.S. farm economy. The volatile nature of agricultural prices combined with a steady decline in manufacturing has made Iowa susceptible to economic recession. This was especially true in the 1980s, when Iowa was second in the United States in outmigration with a 4.7% decline in population. The infant mortality rate in October 2005 was estimated at 5.2 per 1,000 live births. The birth rate in 2003 was 13 per 1,000 population. The abortion rate stood at 9.8 per 1,000 women in 2000. In 2003, about 88.9% of pregnant woman received prenatal care beginning in the first trimester. In 2004, approximately 86% of children received routine immunizations before the age of three. Iowans also began to create businesses and manufacturing firms in the nineteenth century, most of which were agriculture-related. Before the Civil War, the first ones appeared in towns along the Mississippi River. Most river towns had pork-slaughtering operations and breweries, and many also developed specialties. Davenport became a flour-milling center in the 1850s, while Burlington workers manufactured shoes and carriages. All river cities benefited from the daily steamboat travel on the Mississippi. Following the construction of railroads, larger agriculture-related industries appeared. Quaker Oats constructed an oat processing plant in Cedar Rapids, and John Morrell and company set up a meatpacking operation in Ottumwa. By century's end, meatpacking had become the most visible industrial operation in the state with plants in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Des Moines, Mason City, and Sioux City. Eventually, Sioux City became Iowa's largest meat processing center. After 1900, more industries appeared, many not related to agricultural production. Frederick Maytag began to manufacture washing machines, and a tractor works developed in Waterloo. In southeastern Iowa, Sheaffer Pen Company began operations. Late in the 18th cent. a French Canadian, Julien Dubuque. leased land from Native Americans around the Dubuque area and opened lead mines there. After his death they refused to permit others to work the mines, and U.S. troops under Lt. Jefferson Davis protected Native American rights to the land as late as 1830. However, their hold was doomed after the United States acquired Iowa as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Iowa in 2004, had a violent crime rate (murder/nonnegligent manslaughter; forcible rape; robbery; aggravated assault) of 270.9 reported incidents per 100,000 population, or a total of 8,003 reported incidents. Crimes against property (burglary; larceny/theft; and motor vehicle theft) in that same year totaled 85,836 reported incidents or 2,905.3 reported incidents per 100,000 people. Iowa does not have a death penalty. The Division of Banking supervises and regulates the state's chartered banks, loan companies, and mortgage bankers/brokers. As of fourth quarter 2005, the net interest margin (the difference between the lower rates offered to savers and the higher rates charged on loans) stood at 3.73%, down from 3.80% in 2004 and 3.79% in 2003 california indian casinos 500, which has resulted in an earnings decline for 2005. The labor movement generally has not been strong in Iowa, and labor unions have had little success in organizing farm laborers. The Knights of Labor, consisting mostly of miners and railroad workers, was organized in Iowa in 1876 and enrolled 25,000 members by 1885. But the Knights practically disappeared after 1893, when the American Federation of Labor (AFL) established itself in the state among miners and other workers. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) succeeded in organizing workers in public utilities, meat packing, and light industries in 1937. After 1955, when the AFL and CIO merged, the power and influence of labor unions increased in the state. In 2004, a total of 217,229 people in Iowa were employed in the state's manufacturing sector, according to the ASM. Of that total, 157,675 were actual production workers. In terms of total employment, the food manufacturing industry accounted for the largest portion of all manufacturing employees at 49,239, with 39,085 actual production workers. It was followed by machinery manufacturing at 31,014 employees (20 blackjack online canada drugs,233 actual production workers); transportation equipment manufacturing at 16,410 employees (13,196 actual production workers); fabricated metal product manufacturing at 19,804 employees (15,355 actual production workers); plastics and rubber products manufacturing at 15,004 employees (12,168 actual production workers); and electrical equipment, appliance, and component manufacturing at 10 casino classic download notepad,704 employees (7,806 actual production workers). As of 2006, Iowa had one nuclear power generating plant, the single-reactor Duane Arnold plant in the town of Palo. In 2004, local property taxes amounted to $3,188,869,000 or $1,080 per capita. The per capita amount ranks the state 18th nationally. Iowa does not collect property taxes at the state level. See A. B. Skinner, Ethnology of the Ioway Indians (1926). Powers, Elmer G. Years of Struggle. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1976. In 2004, 16,300 privately owned housing units were authorized for construction. Median home value was $95,901. The median monthly cost for mortgage owners was $942. Renters paid a median of $533 per month. In 2006, the state received over $26.4 million in community development block grants from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Iowa's farmers prospered after the Civil War, but during the hard times that afflicted the country in the 1870s they found themselves burdened with debts. Feeling oppressed by the currency system, corporations, and high railroad and grain-storage rates, many of Iowa's farmers supported, along with other farmers of the West, the Granger movement. the Greenback party. and the Populist party. The reform movements had some success in the state. Granger laws were enacted in 1874 and 1876 regulating railroad rates, but these laws were repealed in 1877 under pressure from the railroad companies. By the end of the 19th cent. times improved, and the agrarian movements declined. Farm units grew larger, and mechanization brought great increases in productivity. Among Iowa's most influential governors were the first territorial governor, Robert Lucas (b.Virginia, 1781 – 1853); Cyrus C. Carpenter (b.Pennsylvania, 1829 – 98); William Larrabee (b.Connecticut, 1832 – 1912); Horace Boies (b.New York, 1827 – 1923); and, in recent times, Harold Hughes (1922 – 96) and Robert D. Ray (b.1928). Iowa (ī´əwə). midwestern state in the N central United States. It is bounded by the Mississippi River, across which lie Wisconsin and Illinois (E); Missouri (S); Nebraska and South Dakota, from which it is separated by the Missouri and the Big Sioux rivers, respectively (W); and Minnesota (N). In 2003, Iowa had 116 community hospitals with about 11,000 beds. There were about 363,000 patient admissions that year and 9.7 million outpatient visits. The average daily inpatient census was about 6,500 patients. The average cost per day for hospital care was $952. Also in 2003, there were about 454 certified nursing facilities in the state with 35,428 beds and an overall occupancy rate of about 78.5%. In 2004, it was estimated that about 75.1% of all state residents had received some type of dental care within the year. Iowa had 218 physicians per 100,000 resident population in 2004 and 1,009 nurses per 100,000 in 2005. In 2004, there was a total of 1,546 dentists in the state. An important migratory trend within the state has been from the farm to the city. Although Iowa has remained a major agricultural state, the urban population surpassed the rural population by 1960 and increased to over 60.6% of the total population by 1990. Between 1990 and 1998, Iowa had a net loss of 13,000 in domestic migration and a net gain of 19,000 in international migration. In 1998, 1,655 foreign immigrants arrived in the state. Between 1990 and 1998, Iowa's overall population increased by 3.1%. In the period 2000 – 05, net international migration was 29,386 and net internal migration was − 41,140, for a net loss of 11,754 people. The Iowa Supreme Court consists of seven justices who are appointed by the governor and confirmed to eight-year terms by judicial elections held after they have served on the bench for at least one year. Judges may stand for reelection before their terms expire. The justices select one of their number as chief justice. The court exercises appellate jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases, supervises the trial courts, and prescribes rules of civil and appellate procedure. The Iowa Supreme Court transfers certain cases to the court of appeals, a six-member appellate court that began reviewing civil and criminal cases in 1977, and may review its decisions. Judges on the court of appeals are appointed and confirmed to six-year terms in the same manner as supreme court justices; they elect one of their members as chief judge. Supremely well suited for agriculture, Iowa has the richest and deepest topsoil in the United States and an excellent watershed. Approximately two-thirds of the state's area is drained by the Mississippi River, which forms the entire eastern boundary, and its tributaries. The western part of the state is drained by the Missouri River and its tributaries. Iowa has 13 natural lakes. The largest are Spirit Lake (9 mi/14 km long) and West Okoboji Lake (6 mi/10 km long), both near the state's northwest border. Iowa's recorded history began with the journey of Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette when they explored the Mississippi River. On 25 June 1673, the exploring party stepped ashore on Iowa soil, the first Europeans to do so. During the next 100 years, numerous explorers traveled up and down the Mississippi and visited Iowa. In 1682, French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle traveled the Mississippi River, claiming the river and its valley for France. He named the area Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV. The French sold Louisiana to Spain in 1762, but some forty years later regained control of the territory, and in 1803, sold it to the United States. The area containing the future state of Iowa then belonged to the United States. Little remained of the Spanish presence in the Upper Mississippi area, but French legacy continued in the names of Mississippi River towns such as Dubuque and Prairie Du Chien. Throughout the nineteenth century, as more land opened for settlement and as new industries developed, the need for additional labor was often filled by immigrants. The majority of foreign-born workers arrived from Western Europe and the British Isles. Germans composed the largest group. German Americans settled everywhere within the state, with most of the newcomers going into farming. German Americans were also numerous in the Mississippi River cities where they established small businesses and worked in industry. Even in the early twenty-first century, cities like Dubuque, Davenport, and Burlington are known for their high numbers of German descendants. Extensive coalfields in southeastern Iowa were first mined in 1840. The boomtown of Buxton, in Monroe County, mined sufficient coal in 1901 to support a population of 6,000 people, of whom 5,500 were transplanted southern blacks, but the mines closed in 1918 and Buxton became a ghost town. The state's annual bituminous coal production reached nearly 9 million tons in 1917 – 18. Coal output in 1994 was only 46,000 tons; recoverable coal reserves totaled 1.1 billion tons in 2001. The total area of Iowa is 56,275 sq mi (145,752 sq km), of which land takes up 55,965 sq mi (144,949 sq km) and inland water 310 sq mi (803 sq km). The state extends 324 mi (521 km) e-w; its maximum extension n-s is 210 mi (338 km). Iowans have also faced numerous key political issues with long-term social and economic implications. In 1962, Iowans adopted liquor-by-the-drink online canada casino jack, allowing the establishment of bars and abolishing the State Liquor Commission. At the same time, a struggle to reapportion the state legislature, where both legislative chambers were weighed heavily in favor of rural residents, pitted the state's liberal and conservative forces against each other for more than a decade. After various efforts by the legislature, the state supreme court stepped in, declaring reapportionment legislation unconstitutional. The court then drew up its own reapportionment plan, effective in 1972, which gave Iowa the most equitably apportioned legislature in the nation. The westward wave of white settlement caused Winnebago, Sauk, and Fox Indians to flee to Iowa. Their stay was brief, however, as more whites moved into the territory and drove them out. Iowa was successively part of the Louisiana. Missouri. Michigan. and Wisconsin territories, becoming a separate territory in 1838. It entered the Union in 1846 as a free state at the same time Florida was admitted as a slave state. Located in the western north-central United States, Iowa is the smallest of the midwestern states situated w of the Mississippi River and ranks 25th in size among the 50 states. BIRD: Eastern goldfinch. In 2004, 59% of state residents held employment-based health insurance policies, 7% held individual policies, and 23% were covered under Medicare and Medicaid; 10% of residents were uninsured. In 2003, employee contributions for employment-based health coverage averaged 21% for single coverage and 26% for family coverage. The state offers a nine-month health benefits expansion program for small-firm employees in connection with the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA, 1986), a health insurance program for those who lose employment-based coverage due to termination or reduction of work hours. When the Civil War came, Iowa overwhelmingly supported the Union cause. Iowans fought not only for their ideals, the abolition of slavery, and the preservation of the Union but also for the very practical objective of keeping open the Mississippi River, the main artery for transport of agricultural products. Common Iowa mammals include red and gray foxes, raccoon free casino games to win money, opossum, woodchuck online casino slots canada appliances, muskrat, common cottontail, gray fox, and flying squirrel. The bobolink and purple martin have flyways over the state; the cardinal, rose-breasted grosbeak, and eastern goldfinch (the state bird) nest there. Game fish include rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, and walleye; in all, Iowa has 140 native fish species. Iowa State in n central USA, lying between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers; the capital is Des Moines. First discovered in 1673, the land was claimed for France in 1682. The region was sold to the USA in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Iowa was admitted to the Union in 1846. Industrial development was encouraged after World War II. Originally prairie that was ploughed to create farmland, the region is known for its fertile soil. Maize and other cereals are produced and Iowa stands second only to Texas in the raising of prime cattle. Industries: food processing, farm machinery. Area: 145,790sq km (56,290sq mi). Pop. (2000) 2,926 online slots machines canada zimbabwe,324. Iowa became a state in 1846, and Ansel Briggs was elected as the first governor. In 1857 the capital was moved from Iowa City to Des Moines. In that same year the state adopted its second constitution. Iowa prospered greatly with the beginning of railroad construction, and the rivalry between towns to get the lines was so fierce that the grant of big land tracts to railroad companies was curtailed by legislative act in 1857. Two years earlier the state's first railroad line was completed between Davenport and Muscatine along the eastern border. Before and during the Civil War, Iowans, generally owners of small, independent farms, were naturally sympathetic to the antislavery side, and many fought for the Union. The Underground Railroad, which helped many fugitive slaves escape to free states, was active in Iowa, and the abolitionist John Brown made his headquarters there for a time. The early settlers planted wheat. Iowa ranked second in wheat production by 1870, but as the Wheat Belt moved farther west, the state's farmers turned to raising corn to feed their cattle and hogs. Two important 20th-century developments were the introduction in the 1920s of hybrid corn and the utilization of soybeans as a feed grain on a massive scale during World War II. Significant postwar trends included the rapid mechanization of farming and the decline of the farm population. Iowa is bordered on two sides by rivers; the Mississippi separates it on the east from Wisconsin and Illinois, and the Missouri and the Big Sioux separate it on the west from Nebraska and South Dakota. The state is bounded on the north by Minnesota and on the south by Missouri. Iowa is an area of rich, rolling plains, interrupted by many rivers. The terrain is low and gently sloping, except for the hills in the unglaciated area of NE Iowa, the steeply sloping bluffs on the banks of the Mississippi, and the moundlike bluffs on the banks of the Missouri. The rivers of the eastern two thirds of Iowa flow to the Mississippi; those of the west flow to the Missouri. The original woodlands, which included black walnut and hickory, were destroyed by lumbering and land clearing in the 19th cent. and present wooded sections are covered only with second or third growths of timber. Only 0.1% of Iowa, the lowest total in the 50 states, is owned by the federal government. Government and Higher Education December 28, 1846 The Iowa glacial plain was formed by five different glaciers. The last glacier, which covered about one-fifth of the state's area, retreated from the north-central region some 10,000 years ago, leaving the topsoil as its legacy. Glacial drift formed the small lakes in the north. The oldest rock outcropping, located in the state's northwest corner, is about 1 billion years old. Local government was exercised by 948 municipal units in 2005. The mayor-council system functioned in the great majority of these municipalities, though some of the larger cities employ the council-manager or commission system. Iowa's towns and cities derive their local powers from the state constitution, but the power to tax is authorized by the state General Assembly. In 2005, there were 374 public school districts and 542 special districts. The BLS reported that in 2005, a total of 157,000 of Iowa's 1,369,000 employed wage and salary workers were formal members of a union. This represented 11.5% of those so employed, up from 10.5% in 2004 but still below the national average of 12%. Overall in 2005, a total of 185,000 workers (13.5%) in Iowa were covered by a union or employee association contract, which includes those workers who reported no union affiliation. Iowa is one of 22 states with a right-to-work law. In 2001, Iowa's gross state product (GSP) totaled $111.114 billion, of which manufacturing contributed $22.859 billion or 20.5% of GSP, followed by real estate at $9.834 billion (8.8% of GSP) and health care and social services at $7.475 billion (6.7% of GSP). In that same year, there were an estimated 243,932 small businesses in Iowa. Of the 69,354 businesses having employees, an estimated 67,648 or 97.5% were small companies. An estimated 5,954 new businesses were established in the state in 2004, up 7.6% from the year before. Business terminations that same year came to 7,391, up 0.2% from 2003. There were 360 business bankruptcies in 2004, up 11.5% from the previous year. In 2005, the personal bankruptcy (Chapter 7 and Chapter 13) filing rate was 417 filings per 100,000 people, ranking Iowa as the 36th highest in the nation. According to preliminary data from the US Geological Survey (USGS), the value of Iowa's nonfuel mineral production in 2003 (the latest year for which data was available) was $478 million, a decrease from 2002 of about 2%. The USGS data ranked Iowa as 29th among the 50 states by the total value of its nonfuel mineral production, accounting for over 1% of total US output. In descending order, the data showed cement (portland and masonry), crushed stone, construction sand and gravel, and gypsum as the state's leading nonfuel minerals produced in 2003, which collectively accounted for 97% of total output by value. Situated in the center of the nation and between two major rivers, Iowa had some built-in advantages as pioneers began to move westward to establish farms on the prairie grasslands. Spurred on by the development of railroads, more and more people came to this fertile territory. Although the economy of contemporary Iowa actually depends more on industry and the service sector than on farming, the image of Iowa as a state of rolling farmlands and small towns persists. As the diary of Elmer Powers, a 1930s rural Iowan, indicated, Iowa farmers take pride in "[t]he responsibility of growing the food and flesh for a distant and often unappreciative city." Winebrenner, Hugh. Iowa Precinct Caucuses: the Making of a Media Event. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1998. MOTTO: Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain. Iowa has had two state constitutions. The constitution of 1857 replaced the original constitution of 1846 and, with 52 amendments as of January 2005 (three of which were later nullified by the state supreme court), is still in effect. A few Indian place-names are the legacy of the early Siouan Iowa Indians and the westward-moving Algonkian Sauk and Fox tribes who pushed them out: Iowa, Ottumwa, Keokuk, Sioux City, Oskaloosa, Decorah. A total of 34,789 internet domain names were registered in the state in 2000. World Encyclopedia The leading export commodities are feed grains and products, soybeans and soybean products, and meats and meat products. Diversity has been rising with the addition of industrial machinery, instruments and measurement devices, electronics, specialized transportation equipment, and chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Exports of goods from Iowa in 2005 were valued at $7.3 billion. Iowa demographics have changed slowly since the 1960s. In 2000, Iowa had 2,926,324 residents and its population had grown just 5.4 percent since 1990. Since its admission to the Union in 1846, Iowa gradually increased in population until 1980 (with the exception of the 1910 census) and then lost population for each of seven years. In 1987, that trend was reversed, and the state experienced the beginning of slow but steady population increases. Iowa has long had a high percentage of elderly residents; by 2000, Iowa's percentage of people age sixty-five and older had risen to 14.9 percent, one of the highest in the nation. The percentage of urban and rural residents also changed: in 2000, fewer than one in ten Iowans lived on a farm. Iowa experienced major economic and social change in the second half of the twentieth century. Most evident has been the trend toward urbanization. Shifts from rural to urban populations had been moderate but steady since the latter nineteenth century. In 1880, 84.4 percent of Iowans lived in rural areas, including towns of fewer than 2,500 people. But in 1956, for the first time, more Iowans lived in urban areas than in rural areas. As more Iowans moved to the cities and as farming became more mechanized and specialized, rural institutions began to disappear. Rural churches closed their doors, public schools consolidated at a rate faster than before casino games online 500, and small-town businesses began to close. Reapportionment of the state legislature in 1972 led to a lessening of rural influence in the state government. Given these changes along with the founding of new industries such as Winnebago Industries, Iowa has developed a political balance between rural and urban interests and a steadily growing industrial sector. Two political issues of the 1980s and 1990s proved contentious. In 1985, in strongly contested legislation, Iowa established a state lottery. Opponents, many of them church officials, predicted that the lottery was only the first step in opening the state to all types of gambling. The creation of the lottery was quickly followed by an increase in pari-mutuel betting facilities and the building of steamboat casinos and three Native American gambling casinos. A second issue dealt with gender. In 1980 and 1992, Iowans considered adding an equal rights amendment to the state constitution. The amendment was defeated both times online roulette canada olympic medals, in 1992 by a vote of 595,837 to 551,566. In analyzing the defeat, supporters pointed to a long ballot, which confused some voters, and to the amendment's unclear wording. NICKNAME: The Hawkeye State. In 2006, there were over 5,085 nonprofit organizations registered within the state, of which about 3,031 were registered as charitable, educational, or religious organizations. Among the organizations headquartered in Iowa are the National Farmers Organization (Corning), the American College Testing Program (Iowa City), the National Meals on Wheels Foundation (Iowa City), the National Collegiate Honors Council (Ames), and the Antique Airplane Association (Ottumwa). State educational and cultural organizations include the Iowa Arts Council, the Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance, and the State Historical Society of Iowa. There is a Czech Heritage Foundation in Cedar Rapids and a Danish American Heritage Society in Ames. Special interest associations with offices in Iowa include the Balloon Federation of America and the Bohemia Ragtime Society. In 2005, Iowa had a gross state product (GSP) of $114 billion, which accounted for 0.9% of the nation's gross domestic product and placed the state at number 30 in highest GSP among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The following table gives selected statistics from the 2000 Census for language spoken at home by persons five years old and over. The category "Other West Germanic languages" includes Dutch, Pennsylvania Dutch, and Afrikaans. The category "African languages" includes Amharic, Ibo, Twi, Yoruba, Bantu, Swahili, and Somali. The category "Scandinavian languages" includes Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. In 2004, there were 2.1 million individual life insurance policies in force with a total value of over $145 billion; total value for all categories of life insurance (individual, group, and credit) was over $213 billion. The average coverage amount was $68,600 per policy holder. Death benefits paid that year totaled at over $651 million. Not until June 1673 did the first known white men come to the territory. When Louis Jolliet, accompanied by five French voyageurs and a Jesuit priest, Jacques Marquette, stopped briefly in Iowa on his voyage down the Mississippi, the region was uninhabited except for the Sioux in the west and a few outposts of Illinois and Iowa Indians in the east. Iowa was part of the vast, vaguely defined Louisiana Territory that extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border and was ruled by the French until title was transferred to Spain in 1762. Napoleon took the territory back in 1800 and then promptly sold all of the Louisiana Territory to the amazed American envoys who had come to Paris seeking only the purchase of New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi. After Iowa thus came under US control in 1803, the Lewis and Clark expedition worked its way up the Missouri River to explore the land that President Thomas Jefferson had purchased so cheaply. Iowa looked as empty as it had to Jolliet 130 years earlier. The only white man who had come to explore its riches before the American annexation was an enterprising former French trapper, Julien Dubuque. Soon after the American Revolution. he obtained from the Fox Indians the sole right to work the lead mines west of the Mississippi, and for 20 years Dubuque was the only white settler in Iowa. For most of its history, Iowa has remained a state characterized by cultural variations but with little racial diversity. African Americans have historically been the largest racial group although their total numbers have been small. In 2000, they constituted approximately 2 percent of the state's total population. African Americans have traditionally lived in Iowa's larger cities, although early in 1900 many men worked as coal miners. Since the 1970s, however, the state has become more racially diverse. In 1975, 13,000 Southeast Asian refugees were resettled in Iowa, mainly due to the efforts of then-Governor Robert D. Ray. By the 1990s, their numbers had increased to 25,037. Beginning in the 1960s, a small but increasing number of Hispanics arrived in Iowa. Hispanics had earlier worked as migrant farmworkers, but in the 1990s, they were employed in a wider range of industries, especially in meatpacking. They had settled in both large cities and small towns. In the 1990s, the number of Hispanics rose sharply, an increase of almost 40 percent in ten years. The newly arrived Hispanics came from Mexico as well as from California and Texas. Spanish is the second major language used in the state on an everyday basis. In 2002, the number of Hispanics in Iowa was 82,473. In the 1990s, Iowa also became home to small numbers of Bosnian and Sudanese refugees who settled in Iowa's larger communities. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the system of federal welfare assistance that officially replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in 1997, was reauthorized through the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. TANF is funded through federal block grants that are divided among the states based on an equation involving the number of recipients in each state. Iowa's TANF program is called the Family Investment Program (FIP). In 2004, the state program had 45,000 recipients; state and federal expenditures on this TANF program totaled $60 million in fiscal year 2003. In 2001, the state took steps to allow refugees from other countries, including Afghanistan. to locate in small Iowa towns. During the early 2000s Governor Vilsack established a record for promoting education, signing into law over $200 million in new bills aimed at reducing class sizes. In 2003, he aimed to further improve education, health care, and the environment. Iowa House and Senate Republican leaders created an "Iowa Values Fund," a $503 economic development program, also supported by Vilsack. In 2005, the state was pursuing a comprehensive economic growth strategy focusing on renewable energy, life sciences, financial services, advanced manufacturing, and improving cultural and recreational opportunities. The governor made Iowa's energy independence a goal, and to that effect, the state from 2000 to 2005 nearly tripled its ethanol production and by 2006 was projected to be the nation's leading producer of ethanol. Iowa taxes retail sales at a rate of 5%. In addition to the state tax, local taxes on retail sales can reach as much as 2%, making for a potential total tax on retail sales of 7%. Food purchased for consumption off premises is tax exempt. The tax on cigarettes is 36 cents per pack, which ranks 42nd among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Iowa taxes gasoline at 20.7 cents per gallon. This is in addition to the 18.4 cents per gallon federal tax on gasoline. Despite the abundance of farmable land in Iowa, pioneers by no means had an easy time taming it. The high prairie grass with its extensive root system made it necessary in many cases to hire a professional "prairiebreaker canada online gambling and taxes," a person who made his living by breaking up the soil with a team of oxen and a special, heavy-duty plow. According to Frazier, this process was effective but very costly to the average farmer who might have to work six to eight years to make his land claim pay for its cost. In addition farmers had to cope with periodic plagues of grasshoppers and plant diseases. Although the Democrats had a slight edge over their Whig opposition in the early years of statehood, a majority of Iowa voters in 1856 supported the new Republican Party and, for the most part, did so in succeeding years. A Republican legislative majority in 1857 scrapped the state's first constitution, which had been written by Jacksonian Democrats 12 years earlier. The new document moved the state capital from Iowa City westward to Des Moines, but it provided that the state university would remain forever in Iowa City. Like all states, Iowa was strongly influenced by the two world wars. During World War I (1914–1918), federal government subsidies encouraged farmers to expand their landholdings and to increase their production. Following the war, many farmers were unable to meet mortgage payments and lost their farms through foreclosure. World War II (1939–1945) brought greatly increased production and a strong push for greater mechanization in farming. Corn yields increased as more and more farmers adopted hybrid seed corn. During the late nineteenth century Iowa was slowly becoming a center for much scientific experimentation in farming, especially in animal and plant genetics. Livestock and poultry were refined to meet the tastes of urbanized people who liked more tender beef and chicken. Soybeans were introduced from the Orient, and hybrid corn appeared early in the twentieth century, increasing corn yields significantly. Giant seed companies, such as Pioneer, DeKalb, and Cargill, grew rapidly to accommodate the farmers' increasing desire for the hybrids. On 1 July 1983, the Department of Water, Air and Waste Management came into operation, with responsibility for environmental functions formerly exercised by separate state agencies. Functions of the new department include regulating operation of the state's 2,900 public water supply systems, overseeing nearly 1,200 municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants, inspecting dams, and establishing chemical and bacterial standards to protect the quality of lakes. The department also enforces laws prohibiting open dumping of solid wastes, regulates the construction and operation of 140 solid waste disposal projects, and monitors the handling of hazardous wastes. It also establishes standards for air quality and regulates the emission of air pollutants from more than 600 industries and utilities. Nearly all of Iowa's land is tillable, and about nine-tenths of it is given to farmland. Corn is grown practically everywhere; wheat is raised in the southern half of the state and in counties bordering the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Wall, Joseph Frazier. Iowa: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton, 1978. Statehood, Railroads, and Reform Movements
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