Story County Gets Iowa State: Iowa Time Machine June 21, 1859

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On June 21, 1859, Story County officially became the home of the Iowa Agricultural College and Research Farm. Known worldwide today as Iowa State University, over 30,000 students still arrive in Ames to pursue “science with practice.”

Several counties throughout the state made proposals to host the new institution of higher learning. Still, Story County ultimately won the bid on June 21, 1859, over Johnson, Kossuth, Marshall, and Polk counties. With the site selected, the state purchased 648 acres for $5,379. In 1861, builders completed construction on the Farm House (now home to the Farm House Museum). The following year, the Iowa State Legislature became the first to accept the federal government’s 1862 Morrill Act terms. The Morrill Act “allowed Iowa to sell federal land to finance a new college open to all regardless of wealth, race, or gender; offering a practical education in agriculture, engineering, and military science.” The institution admitted the first preparatory class in 1868, with the first formal admission of students in 1869, followed by the first graduating class in 1872.

The very first Iowa State graduation included 24 men and 2 women. The first state-sponsored School of Veterinary Science in the United States opened in 1879. In 1898, the institution's name changed to Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, becoming ‘Iowa State’ for short. The name changed again, to the current Iowa State University of Science and Technology, on July 4, 1959.

The Cyclone name for Iowa State’s athletic teams dates back to 1895, after the school’s football team beat Northwestern by a score of 45-0. The Chicago Tribune’s headline boasted “Struck by a Cyclone: It Comes from Iowa and Devastates Evanston Town. Northwestern might as well have tried to play football with an Iowa cyclone as with the Iowa team it met yesterday.” The cardinal-like bird representing the difficult-to-depict cyclone moniker debuted at the 1954 Homecoming pep rally, where seventeen individuals submitted ‘Cy’ as a name for the bird in a contest to name the mascot. #Iowa #OTD #History #College #HigherEd