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A French-Canadian named Julian Dubuque had permission from the Fox Indians, to mind for lead an area near present day Dubuque.
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During the years of 1830-1870, the Mississippi river became a resource to transport goods and trade. Steamboats were used to move goods and people on the Mississippi river before railroads and major roads were built in Iowa. Today, grain is mainly transported by river.
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Dubuque was opened to settlers with the Black Hawk Purchase Treaty. Many came to work in mining and fur-trading from the east coast of the United States.
Source: http://www.cityofdubuque.org/1060/History -
The first railway to Muscatine from Davenport started in 1855. Once the railways were built, it allowed settlers to move further west into Iowa to farm more land.
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Farmers were encouraged to produce more during World War I. Therefore farmers expanded by buying more land through large bank loans. Unfortunately farmers went into debt after the war because wartime subsidies were eliminated. Since farmers went into debt they could not repay the bank loans. This caused many to face hardships or even many losing their farms by 1929.
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Between the years of 1945-1960's, the farming economy of Iowa had begun to change into more industrialized companies. There was an increase in food or metal processors and machine manufacturing. This caused many people to go work in cities and a decrease in small farms. Today some of the largest production of products are agricultural equipment, food processing and seed grain operations.
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During the 1980's, the price of agricultural products had dropped so low, that many farmers went bankrupt or had to get second jobs to support their farms. Even with all these set backs for farmers, farms still make up 85% of the land area in Iowa today.