Iowa City, Iowa

"The City of Literature"

Iowa City was created by an act of Legislative Assembly of the Iowa Territory on January 21, 1839. While Iowa City was selected as the territorial capitol in 1839, it did not officially become the capitol city until 1841, after construction of the capitol building had begun. Assemblies met there until 1857, when the state capitol relocated to Des Moines. Despite a slow start, the city has since continued to grow as one of the fastest in the state and now has over 77,000 residents. It's one of the nation's top public research universities, and is  its focus on the arts, sciences and humanities.