East Central Iowa

East Central Iowa covers the country between the Cedar River and the Mississippi, a stretch of rolling agricultural country and the urban core of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. The terrain is gently rolling — drift plain in the western counties, deeper river bottoms along the Cedar, Iowa, and Wapsipinicon rivers, Mississippi bluff country at Muscatine on the eastern edge. Linn County holds Cedar Rapids, the largest city; Johnson holds Iowa City and the University of Iowa; Iowa County holds the Amana Colonies (seven German Pietist villages founded in 1855 and operating as a communal society until 1932); Muscatine holds the Mississippi river port of Muscatine; Cedar holds Tipton; Washington holds Washington itself. Coralville Lake sits north of Iowa City. The Amana Heritage Museum, the National Czech & Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, the Old Capitol Museum, and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library at West Branch anchor most cultural visits. Most trips here center on three threads. The Amana Colonies handle the German-heritage shopping and woolen mill; Iowa City runs the college-town and Hoover-history itinerary; Cedar Rapids carries the Czech Village and Grant Wood country (the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art holds the largest collection of Wood’s work).