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 settlement by William Sturgis and his brother-in-law, Erasmus Adams, in 1845. The small community, known at the time as “Sturgis Falls,” attracted early settlers due to the agricultural, power, and transportation potential of the upper Cedar River Valley. In 1850, John Barrick, as well as the brothers John and Dempsey Overman, acquired the site from Sturgis and renamed the growing hamlet Cedar Falls.
The Dubuque and Iowa Falls Railroad was an outgrowth of the earlier Dubuque and Pacific Railroad, an initial extension of the Illinois Central from the Galena, Illinois, area across the Mississippi River. By September 10, 1856, the “Dubuque,” an aptly-named locomotive for the occasion, ferried across the Mississippi. As funds poured in from land town lot auctions conducted by the railroad, enabled by the congressional act, the bills quickly accumulated.
By 1859, the Dubuque and Pacific went into receivership, only to emerge as the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad through reorganization. Two years later, the railroad finally connected Cedar Falls with points east, and citizens celebrated by adorning the locomotive engine with a wreath of cedar. #IowaHistoryCalendar #IowaHistoryDaily
