Nomadic hunters entered what is now Iowa as early as 10,000 B.C., coming on foot. Around 1000 B.C., other Indians, mound builders of the Adena culture, arrived probably by canoe or dugout. They established permanent settlements along larger streams and engaged in farming. After 1200 A.D., warlike tribes entered Iowa and displaced the mound builders of a later culture, the Mississipian. Among these later arrivals were the Iowa, Oto, and Winnebago.

Important dates in Iowa
1673 Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette of France became the first white people to see the Iowa region.
1762 France ceded part of its colony of Louisiana, including Iowa, to Spain.
1788 Julien Dubuque, Iowa's first white settler, began mining lead near present-day Dubuque.
1800 Spain ceded the Louisiana region back to France.
1803 The U.S. acquired Iowa in the Louisiana Purchase.
1808 The U.S. Army built Fort Madison.
1832 Indians led by Chief Black Hawk were defeated by the U.S. Army in the Black Hawk War.
1833 Permanent settlements began in the Iowa region.
1834 Congress attached the area to the Territory of Michigan for governmental purposes.
1836 Congress created the Territory of Wisconsin, which included Iowa, Minnesota, and most of the Dakotas.
1838 Congress created the Territory of Iowa.
1846 Iowa became the 29th state on December 28.
1857 The legislature adopted Iowa's present Constitution.
1867 The first railroad was completed across Iowa, from the Mississippi River to Council Bluffs.
1873 Grange members opposed the practices of railroads serving farmers and won control of the legislature.
1913 The Keokuk Dam was completed.
1917 Iowa began an extensive road-building program.
1920's-1933 Many Iowa farmers lost their land through failure to make mortgage payments.
Mid-1930's-1940's Legislation was passed to help Iowa farmers.
1962 The Iowa court system was reorganized.
Mid-1970's Manufacturing overtook agriculture as a source of income in Iowa.
1985 The state established a lottery to raise revenue.
1993 Floods caused more than $2 billion in property and crop damage in Iowa.