What's southern Iowa like?

Deb Kinnard said:

Depends, too, on whether you mean southwest or southeast Iowa. Ottumwa is a bit hilly, but even in the flat parts of Iowa you can find rivers cutting through the plains. Therefore bluffs, rock outcroppings, pretty places. As far as high country, no, not much. The area around Iowa City/Coralville is rather pretty but IIRC that's more because of the lakes and rivers than any inherent beauty in the landforms.

Family is from Central Iowa, one of the several places my heart lives.

Click to expand...

Marlys said:

Look for a relocation guide--they're often put out by real estate companies, local corporations, chambers of commerce. They usually describe local attractions, climate, cost of living, schools, etc. Really handy for areas you want to write about.

Click to expand...

blacbird said:

What benbenberi said. I hail from northern iowa, where it's colder and a bit hillier, but I've spent lots of time traveling from there southwestward and back, to Kansas and Oklahoma. Southern Iowa has no significant cities, but lots of small towns, and a rural-based economy, mainly. Iowa is, perhaps to some, surprisingly populous (~3 million people), but that populace is spread relatively evenly, no really big cities. The largest is the capital, Des Moines, with a bit over 200,000 people.

In the rural small towns, things like grain elevators and water towers form the most conspicuous infrastructure. There's usually a main street, usually named Main Street, which runs through the center and contains the historic old business area of the town.

Midwest weather, hot and humid in summer, cold and windy in winter, but not generally a lot of snow. Big thunderstorms, with the occasional tornado in summer.

There is a bit of a cultural divide between the northern portion of the state and the southern portion, which goes back to the days of pioneer settlement in the mid 19th century. Northern Iowa was largely settled by immigrants from northern Europe, particularly Norwegians, Danes and Germans. Southern Iowa tended to be settled by Americans of Scotch-Irish background, moving westward from the Appalachians and eastern seaboard. These are, of course, generalizations, but that's the background history, and it still tends to hold true in some small towns.

Iowa is subdivided into 99 counties, all of relatively equal and semi-square size. In every one is a county seat, and the center of all of those is the courthouse, usually the most imposing building in town, nearly always of 19th-century stone construction.

More recently, there have been a lot of hispanic immigrants, both legal and illegal, as in many other places in the U.S., to do agricultural work. And, sadly, many rural places in the Midwest have become centers for methamphetamine manufacture and traffic.

Any other specifics you'd like to know?

caw

Click to expand...