9 Off-The-Beaten-Path Towns In Iowa

The Iowa most people picture starts and ends with corn. The state behind that picture starts in Decorah, where the Driftless Area's limestone bluffs never got flattened by glaciers. Nine off-the-beaten-path towns spread from the Mississippi River corridor through the southern hills out to the Norwegian settlements in the northeast. Each runs a working downtown with the kind of independent businesses that don't survive on highway exits. None of these is the obvious Iowa stop, and that's the point.

Decorah

Decorah sits in the northeast corner of the state, in the Driftless Area where glaciers missed the landscape and left limestone bluffs and spring-fed streams behind. Dunning's Spring Park has a paved walking path that leads directly to the spring-fed waterfall, with a stone bridge across the base of the falls. The Vesterheim National Norwegian-American Museum sits less than a mile from the park, a complex of 12 historic buildings holding over 33,000 objects covering Norwegian immigration to the United States. It is the largest museum in the country devoted to a single immigrant group.

Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. sits south of downtown, pouring their barrel-aged Kentucky Brunch Brand Stout, a gold medal winner at the US Beer Open Championship. The brewery is one of the reasons people drive five hours to Decorah specifically for the food and drink.

Grinnell

Grinnell is a college town, and the college and the town share the rhythm of the academic year. The Grinnell Historical Museum covers the local aviation industry, the 1882 tornado that destroyed much of the original town, and the early agricultural roots. Hotel Grinnell occupies the 1920s former junior high school building, now a 45-room hotel that kept the original gym floor and corridors visible in the public spaces.

The Prairie Canary on Main Street runs a kitchen built around local farmers' produce, with truffle fries and a Mary Me Chicken that the regulars order without checking the menu. Below the restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights, a speakeasy with a deep bourbon selection runs by reservation only, accessed with a code at an unmarked door.

Winterset

Winterset sits a 40-minute drive southwest of Des Moines and feels much further. The John Wayne Birthplace Museum on South Second Street holds memorabilia from the actor's career, including original scripts and movie posters. A four-room house adjacent to the museum has been restored to its 1907 condition, the year Marion Robert Morrison was born there. The Madison County Courthouse, a Renaissance Revival building in locally quarried limestone, sits five minutes' walk from the museum with a marble main floor and original stone facade.

The Cutler-Donahoe Bridge, an 82-foot wooden covered bridge built in 1871, was relocated to Winterset City Park in 1970 from its original location over the North River. The Clark Tower, a 25-foot limestone monument in the same park, looks like a small castle and rewards the climb up the interior stone stairs with a panoramic view of the Middle River Valley.

Pella

Pella's Dutch heritage runs deeper than tulips, and the Vermeer Windmill is the structural proof. The 124-foot working windmill was designed and built in the Netherlands, disassembled, shipped over, and reassembled in Pella in 2002. It is one of several restored Dutch structures inside the Pella Historical Village, which also holds a log cabin, a blacksmith shop, a replica of the town's first church, and a cheese shop.

Molengracht Plaza handles the rest of the European feel, with a man-made canal carrying 100,000 gallons of water through cobblestone streets lined with lodging and dining. Jaarsma Bakery, a block away, has been turning out Dutch letters and almond-paste pastries since 1898 with no preservatives and all from-scratch dough.

Clarinda

Clarinda sits in the rolling hills of southwest Iowa, far enough from any metropolitan hub to keep the small-town pace year-round. The Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum and Home covers the bandleader's life, from his patriotic service through World War II until his rise to musical stardom and disappearance over the English Channel in 1944.

The Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum, originally built as a Carnegie library in 1908 in a Neo-Classical building, now hosts rotating American contemporary art exhibits half a mile up the street. J. Bruner's Restaurant has been running on the same fine dining menu since 1983, with crispy onion rings and thick-cut steaks that account for the regular weekend wait.

Clear Lake

Clear Lake sits on the lake of the same name in north-central Iowa, with a downtown that runs on lake traffic from May through September. Clear Lake State Park covers over 50 acres along the south shore with a 900-foot sandy beach, full-hookup campsites, and water access for swimming and small-boat launching. The Central Gardens of North Iowa sits under three miles away, with nearly 20 themed gardens, seasonal flower plantings, decorative water features, sculptures, and native prairie restoration.

The Surf Ballroom on the lakeshore is the reason Clear Lake shows up in rock and roll history. The 1948 dance hall preserves its original vintage decor and active concert calendar, and the building is where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper played their last show on February 2, 1959, before the plane crash near town that night.

Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon sits between Cedar Rapids and Davenport, far enough from either to keep a small-town downtown rather than become a suburb. Palisades-Kepler State Park covers river bluffs, deep ravines, and hardwood forest, with a five-mile trail system, walleye and channel catfish fishing, and tent and electric campsites.

The downtown historic district holds a curated set of independent businesses. Bauman & Company has been selling head-to-toe menswear since 1909 in the same storefront. Back Porch Pickers and Artisans runs an antique mall in a 9,000-square-foot building with over 80 booths handling repurposed furniture, vintage glassware, and salvage. Lincoln Winebar handles the late evening with wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizzas that have made the national lists for best pizza outside the major cities.

Elkader

Elkader sits in the Turkey River valley in northeast Iowa, surrounded by limestone bluffs. The town's downtown buildings have been kept in original condition, and the Elkader Opera House on Main Street runs a calendar of Broadway-style musicals and local community theater productions through the year. Schera's Algerian American Restaurant a block over runs a menu blending regional Algerian and Mediterranean cooking with small-batch beers and natural wines sourced from northeast Iowa.

The Motor Mill Historic Site sits outside town along the Turkey River, with five limestone heritage buildings including a six-story grist mill from the 1860s. The 49-acre Retz Memorial Woods State Preserve is nearby for an afternoon of hiking rugged terrain. The preserve holds walking ferns, mosses, wild grape, red elm, and sugar maple, plus pileated woodpeckers and scarlet tanagers, making it a popular stop for botanists.

Fairfield

Fairfield is in southeast Iowa, with an isolated location that means it gets less attention than its history suggests it should. The Carnegie Historical Museum, in an 1870s building, holds a diverse permanent collection including Native American pottery and Civil War artifacts. Maasdam Barns, a few minutes from downtown, preserves an early draft-horse breeding operation through antique machinery and vintage wagons.

Cedar View Trail is a 4.5-mile woodland path with an elevated overlook across Cedar Lake and surrounding wetlands. The trail passes prairie plantings and birdhouses before connecting with the 16-mile Fairfield Loop Trail, which encircles much of the community past lakes, parks, wooded sections, and restored prairie. Walkers and cyclists use it year-round.

Less Traveled Iowa

The nine towns above sit far enough from the major Iowa highways that none of them comes up in the standard travel rotation. Each runs a working downtown built around independent businesses rather than chain stores, with the festivals and food and museums that hold the local economy together. The Driftless landscape around Decorah, the Dutch heritage in Pella, the rock and roll history in Clear Lake, and the storybook valley around Elkader each give the visit a specific reason to be there. None of these requires a long itinerary. None benefits from being skipped.