• Days of the Sawmills
• Covering the Community: Iowa's Newspaper History
• Fur Trading: A Native Iowan Industry
• Grist for the Mill
• Steaming Up the River
• The Ice Industry in Iowa
• Lead Mining
• Early Meatpacking
• The Pearl Button Story
• Early Agriculture
• Workers
• Business & Industry

Which natural resources were important to Iowa's early industry? How do we use natural resources today?

 

• Portable sawmill
• Sawmill in operation
• Lead smelting furnace
• millinery shop
• Fountain Spring Mill
• Miners with mule-drawn cart
• Punched pearl button shells
• Old shot tower
• Clamming Operation
• Coal Mining Towns
• Iowa's Population Shifts
• Lumber Milling in Iowa

View all artifacts »

Reading Tip: Prereading
Before beginning to read, skim the page. Choose what to explore first. List what to explore later. Identify what to ignore.

 

• Make butter just like they did on the farm in 1850!
• Find out more about the Indian tribes that traded along the Mississippi River.
• Do ice houses still exist? Visit the Ice House Museum in Cedar Falls!
• In 1849 a lumber raft trip down the Wisconsin River shows how logs got to the sawmills along the Mississippi.
• This flour mill was among the many other types of Mills such as woolen, grist and lumber mills in Bonaparte.
• The Mines of Spain are connected to the Mesquakie, Julien Dubuque, fur trade, and lead mining.
• This steamboat captain explains life on the Mississippi and transporting lumber.
• This article explains the unique construction of the a mill built around 1855.

View all side trails »

By Peter Hoehnle

 

1. Early Industry
2. The Flood of 1993 Reveals Fossils