Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On April 1, 1909, workers broke ground in Mason City, Iowa, on two buildings that would redefine small-town architecture: the Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank, both designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. This dual project stands as his only surviving hotel design and a prime example of Prairie School style fused into an urban block. Frank Lloyd Wright launched his Prairie School aesthetic around 1900, drawing on the horizontal Midwestern landscape to craft low-slung...

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On April 1, 1861, the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad crossed the Cedar River, and the first train chugged into Cedar Falls at 5:30 p.m. The important crossing marked a significant milestone for the northernmost of four railroads built across Iowa following the Iowa Railway Land Grant Act passed by Congress on May 15, 1856. Cedar Falls, a burgeoning town of around 1,500 residents by the time of the historic railway crossing, began to grow following the initial American...

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On April 1, 1951, the airmen of Iowa's 132nd Fighter-Bomber Wing in Des Moines and the 174th Fighter Squadron in Sioux City were activated for the Korean War. Their activation marked one of the largest Guard mobilizations in U.S. history, with about 45,000 airmen from across the country called up to bolster a strained military. North Korea's invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950, ignited the first major hot war of the Cold War. President Truman committed U.S. forces...