Iowa

Only one place in Iowa officially goes by Story City, but the name could fit any town in the state. There’s a reason the RAGBRAI route shifts every year so that cyclists can enjoy the hospitality of different communities, each with a unique tale to tell. Our Iowa books offer a similar sampling of Hawkeye flavor, without the 467 mile bike ride. Solve a murder in Scott County or make some pearl buttons in Muscatine while exploring our Iowa history books from Okoboji and the Iowa Great Lakes to the flagship Younkers store in Des Moines. [View all Iowa books]
3 products
Cover image for Iowa City, isbn: 9781467161060
Iowa City
$24.99
Murder at the Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids
Murder at the Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids
$21.99
Detour Iowa
Detour Iowa
$21.99

Iowa City

9781467161060

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%

Truly a frontier town when it was founded in 1839, Iowa City was created to become the new capital of Iowa Territory.

With the arrival of the railroad in 1855, growth was rapid, and the establishment of the University of Iowa in 1847 meant that town and gown literally grew up together. Industry thrived in the late 1800s. Included were the manufacture of linseed oil, corn glucose, and vanilla extracts; the production of glassware, gloves, and jewelry; and the assembly of small farm machinery. A resurgence took place in the 1950s, beginning with the establishment of a Procter and Gamble plant. Meanwhile, artists and innovators flourished. Variously called an “Athens of the West,” a UNESCO City of Literature, and the “Greatest Small City for the Arts,” Iowa City continues to attract new families, university faculty and researchers, business people, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, and retirees who find world-class medical care and enough sports, arts, and entertainment for all to enjoy.

Cover image for Iowa City, isbn: 9781467161060

Murder at the Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids

9781467119603

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Byron C. Hattman sealed his fate when he checked into the Roosevelt Hotel on December 13, 1948. A maid found his body in a blood-spattered room two days later. An investigation linked him to the young wife of St. Louis pediatrician Robert C. Rutledge, who confessed to the brutal attack after trying to poison himself. The scandal made national headlines and seemed like an easy case for the Linn County court. That is, until new evidence changed the story completely. Reporter and author Diane Fannon-Langton uncovers the truth and compiles the complete details of the Hattman slaying for the first time.
Murder at the Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids

Detour Iowa

9781467143455

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Iowa history ranges from the natural to what's been made by humans over many centuries. Find and hold the fossilized remains of sea creatures that lived 375 million years ago. Walk through a small-town home where one of the nation's most infamous--and unsolved--murders occurred in 1912. Savor pastries that originated in the Netherlands before the 1840s and watch where wheat is ground into flour in a windmill first built in Denmark and then rebuilt in Elk Horn. Listen to time softly tick away in an elaborately carved clock that auto pioneer Henry Ford tried and failed to buy in 1928 for $1 million. Join writer-photographer Mike Whye on trips to the known, little-known and unknown historic places in Iowa.
Detour Iowa