Iowa rewards anyone willing to slow down. Between the Mississippi bluffs and the Missouri River valley sit ancient mound complexes, presidential homes, and a baseball diamond carved out of a cornfield.
I taught history for a living before I joined my sons to film these places, and Iowa keeps surprising me. The 15 landmarks below run from 1,000-year-old earthworks to a movie set that fans still drive hundreds of miles to reach.
Here is our ranked list of the best historic sites and landmarks in the Hawkeye State, counting down to number one.
Iowa Landmarks At A Glance
A quick reference before you build your route. Most of these sites cluster along the eastern and western edges of the state, so you can pair several in a single drive.
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| Landmark | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Field of Dreams | Film site | Dyersville |
| Herbert Hoover NHS | Presidential park | West Branch |
| Mormon Pioneer NHT | Historic trail | Statewide |
| Effigy Mounds Natl Monument | Indigenous site | Harpers Ferry |
| Lewis & Clark NHT | Historic trail | Western Iowa |
| Farm House Museum | Historic house | Ames |
| General Dodge House | Historic house | Council Bluffs |
| Buffalo Bill Museum | History museum | LeClaire |
| Mines of Spain | Recreation area | Dubuque |
| Sergeant Floyd Monument | Monument | Sioux City |
| American Gothic House | Historic house | Eldon |
| Roseman Covered Bridge | Covered bridge | Madison County |
| Amana Colonies | Historic district | Amana |
| Iowa Old Capitol Museum | Historic building | Iowa City |
| Fort Des Moines | Historic site | Des Moines |
15. Fort Des Moines
We start in the capital. The land here was home to the Sauk and Meskwaki peoples long before any garrison arrived. The post most people mean today is the second Fort Des Moines, established in 1903.
Its place in history is real: in 1917 it trained the first class of African American Army officers, and during World War II it served as the first training center for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. The site is a National Historic Landmark.
14. Iowa Old Capitol Museum
Built between 1840 and 1842, this Greek Revival building served as Iowa’s territorial and first state capitol. When the seat of government moved to Des Moines in 1857, the building passed to the new University of Iowa.
It still anchors the campus. A 2001 fire destroyed the gold dome, which was rebuilt and reopened in 2006. Admission is free.
13. Amana Colonies
Seven villages founded in the 1850s by German members of the Community of True Inspiration. For nearly 80 years the colonists lived communally, sharing meals and labor, until they reorganized in 1932 into a church and a for-profit company.
Today the colonies are a National Historic Landmark district where you can still find communal kitchens, a woolen mill, and a working brewery.
12. Roseman Covered Bridge
The Roseman Covered Bridge, the most famous of the Bridges of Madison County, on a perfect spring day. (Shutterstock-Joe Taylor Cinema)
Film fans know this one from The Bridges of Madison County. Built in 1883 using a Town lattice truss design, it spans the Middle River in Madison County.
It is one of six surviving covered bridges in the county and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
11. American Gothic House
This small white cottage in Eldon is the house behind Grant Wood’s 1930 painting American Gothic, the one with the farmer and his pitchfork. Wood never went inside. He sketched the Gothic Revival window from the street.
Built in 1881, the house now sits beside a visitor center where you can pose for your own version of the portrait.
10. Sergeant Floyd Monument
A 100-foot sandstone obelisk above the Missouri River in Sioux City. It honors Sergeant Charles Floyd, the only member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to die on the journey, in 1804.
Dedicated in 1901, it was the first site ever designated a National Historic Landmark, in 1960.
9. Mines of Spain Recreation Area
A 1,400-acre preserve near Dubuque named for the Spanish land grant once held by Julien Dubuque, who mined lead here with the Meskwaki in the late 1700s. His grave is marked by a stone tower above the Mississippi.
The area is a National Historic Landmark and laced with hiking trails through bluffs and prairie.
8. Buffalo Bill Museum
William Cody, the showman known as Buffalo Bill, was born near LeClaire in 1846. This riverside museum tells the story of his Wild West shows alongside Mississippi River history.
Its standout exhibit is the Lone Star, one of the last surviving wooden-hulled steamboats in the country.
7. General Dodge House
A 14-room Victorian mansion in Council Bluffs built in 1869 for Grenville Dodge, the Civil War general who became chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad.
The house keeps its original parquet floors and walnut woodwork and is a National Historic Landmark.
6. Farm House Museum
The oldest building on the Iowa State University campus in Ames, dating to 1860. It housed the school’s early presidents and faculty before becoming a museum of 19th-century farm life.
It is a National Historic Landmark and free to visit.
5. Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail
The Corps of Discovery traced the Missouri River along Iowa’s western edge in 1804. The full trail runs roughly 4,900 miles across 16 states from Pennsylvania to Oregon.
Sioux City’s interpretive center and the riverfront sites make western Iowa a strong place to pick up the route.
4. Effigy Mounds National Monument
Above the Mississippi near Harpers Ferry, Indigenous peoples shaped the earth into mounds in the form of bears and birds. More than 200 mounds survive here, built between roughly 700 and 1,200 years ago.
The monument is co-stewarded with 20 culturally associated tribal nations, and the ground remains sacred. Walk the trails with that in mind.
3. Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail
In 1846 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints crossed Iowa on foot and by wagon, fleeing persecution in Illinois. The full trail runs about 1,300 miles to Salt Lake City.
Iowa preserves the early miles, including the winter camp sites where many travelers did not survive the crossing.
2. Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
In West Branch you can stand in the two-room cottage where the 31st president was born in 1874, then walk to his presidential library and his grave on the same grounds.
The site is run by the National Park Service and pairs the humble birthplace with a full account of a complicated presidency.
1. Field of Dreams
Our number one is the baseball diamond built for the 1989 film, still mowed into a Dyersville cornfield. People drive in from every state to play catch where Kevin Costner did.
Major League Baseball has staged regular-season games here, and the site stays open to the public for free. If you build it, they really do come.
Plan a half day: arrive early, walk the bases, then disappear into the corn the way the players do in the film.
More Things To Do
Once you have the landmarks covered, Iowa keeps giving. A few ways to round out the trip:
- Drive the rest of the Madison County covered bridges in one loop.
- Cycle a stretch of the RAGBRAI route across the rolling farmland.
- Tour the working woolen mill and brewery in the Amana Colonies.
- Explore Iowa’s national park sites for more protected history and landscape.
You should know that this guide does not come out of thin air. My sons Will and Jim have spent their adult lives exploring America’s national parks and public lands destinations.
Will and Jim have worked with the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the USDA, and the U.S. Forest Service creating films on the places and issues that matter. In 2018, after a career teaching history, I joined them to help tell the stories behind these sites.
