Iowa — We in the United States have our main patriotic celebration on Independence Day, July 4th. In fact, we sometimes call it the nation’s “birthday.” This past week, we observed what Iowans might call the state’s “birthday” — its 177th birthday, to be exact.
According to data from the United States Census, the United States acquired the area of Iowa from France in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Iowa Territory was organized on June 12, 1838, from part of Wisconsin Territory. It included all of present-day Iowa, the eastern part of North Dakota and South Dakota, and the western part of Minnesota.
Iowa was admitted to the Union on December 28, 1846, as the 29th state with generally the same boundary as the present state. The remaining part of the territory was unattached until the organization of Minnesota Territory in 1849.
When it became a state, fewer than 100,000 people called Iowa home, and most of them were in the eastern third of the state. Today, nearly 3.2 million people live in the Hawkeye state.
