Issue Date: August 1, 1996
City: Dubuque, IA
Quantity: 103,400,000
Printed By: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd
Printing Method: Lithographed
Perforations: 11.1
Color: Multicolored

 

Iowa’s vast, fertile grasslands are framed by the Missouri River on the west and by the Mississippi River on the east. Though manufacturing and service industries now outrank farming as sources of income, 93% of Iowa’s land and ten percent of its people remain devoted to agriculture. Iowa is “the land where the tall corn grows,” but it is also a leading producer of soybeans and oats, hogs and cattle. In all, Iowa produces seven percent of our nation’s food supply and continues to be one of America’s great and vital farming states. 

 

The explorers Marquette and Jolliet claimed Iowa for France. The territory was transferred to the U.S. in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Though French-Canadian Julien Dubuque had settled near the present-day city of Dubuque, Iowa was Indian territory and closed to settlement. After the Black Hawk War of 1832, the tribes sold some land along the Mississippi River. Settlers promptly moved in, and on December 28, 1846, Iowa became our 29th state. Des Moines became Iowa’s capital in 1857. 

 

Iowa boasts a 99% literacy rate, the highest in the land, as well as many famous sons and daughters. Herbert Hoover, our 31st president, and Carrie Chapman Catt, leader in the woman-suffrage movement, are but two Iowans who have enriched American life.