9 Undisturbed Towns To Visit In Iowa
Iowa is shaped by the mighty Mississippi River and the vast rolling farmland of the Prairies. Because of the still largely rural character of the state, many of its small towns have an undisturbed vintage appeal without losing the attractions that make them interesting to visit. In Winterset, covered bridges still span creeks in the city parks. Decorah sits among spring-fed streams, caves, and trout waters carved by untouched glacial terrain. Along the Mississippi, McGregor and Guttenberg follow the river’s edge with bluff overlooks, riverwalks, and historic downtown blocks. The history of each town is deep, intriguing, and on display in local museums and historic sites you can browse at your leisure. Life can be a hassle. Going away to these unbothered towns can help you get grounded again.
Winterset
Winterset is known for its quiet parks and covered bridges. One of the best-known sits inside Winterset City Park, painted in classic barn red with white trim and open only to foot traffic, making it easy to linger, take in the setting, and snap a few obligatory selfies. Nearby, Clark Tower, a limestone structure honoring an early pioneer family, rises above the trees, offering wide views over the surrounding countryside and river valley.
Larger-than-life cowboy John Wayne was born here. Visitors to the John Wayne Birthplace & Museum can tour his childhood home and learn about his life and film career through original movie posters, hand-marked scripts and contracts, his personal car, film wardrobe items, and other memorabilia. In a quieter way, the Iowa Quilt Museum reflects the same everyday Americana seen in many of John Wayne’s films, preserving the kinds of hand-stitched quilts that would have appeared on frontier beds, wagon seats, and ranch houses both on screen and in his own lifetime. The museum features rotating exhibits and operates seasonally from late spring through fall.
Pella
Pella celebrates its Dutch heritage through its downtown architecture. The centerpiece is the 124-foot Vermeer Windmill, North America’s tallest working windmill. Built in the Netherlands in 2002 using wood from multiple countries, the mill still grinds wheat into flour with traditional millstones while visitors observe from its interior floors. Nearby, the Pella Historical Village preserves early Dutch settlement life through a collection of historic and reconstructed buildings, including a general store, log cabin, blacksmith shop, and wooden shoe factory. The Wyatt Earp Boyhood Home is also located on the grounds, marking the years the future lawman spent here before heading west.
Another highlight is the Scholte House Museum. Built in the 1840s by town founder Hendrik Scholte, the home retains original furnishings and period details throughout its rooms, offering a glimpse into life during the Victorian era. Behind the house, Scholte Gardens fill with more than 35,000 tulips each spring before shifting to seasonal plantings through autumn.
Decorah
Decorah preserves its history through the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Its collection includes more than 33,000 artifacts, displayed across galleries and historic buildings in Heritage Park. Among them is the Valdres House, built in 1795 in Norway and later reassembled in Decorah by Norwegian carpenters in the mid-1970s. Inside, visitors find a one-tree cabin, a wooden sailboat that crossed the Atlantic, silver wedding crowns, and intricately carved butter molds. The museum also operates a Folk Art School offering classes in rosemaling, woodworking, and fiber arts throughout the year.
That sense of continuity carries beyond the museum as Decorah spreads across northeastern Iowa’s Driftless Region, an area untouched by the last glaciers. The result is a landscape that feels older and more rugged than much of the surrounding state. The paved Trout Run Trail loops through town, crossing trout streams and climbing steep hillsides before connecting to Dunnings Spring Park. There, a spring-fed waterfall drops from a limestone bluff and flows year-round at a steady temperature. From the park, a short walk leads to Ice Cave State Preserve, where trapped cold air allows ice to linger on cave walls well into the warmer months.
McGregor
McGregor clings to the Mississippi River where Wisconsin’s border meets Iowa’s tallest river bluffs, a setting that has kept the town small and its surroundings largely untouched. Pikes Peak State Park rises high above the point where the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers come together. Its trail system leads to overlooks and features like Bridal Veil Falls, one of Iowa’s few natural waterfalls, where water spills over limestone ledges. For those willing to hike farther, Point Ann Overlook rewards the effort with wide views of the Mississippi River valley, McGregor’s rooftops, and the Wisconsin shoreline across the water, with little development in sight.
Back in town, the McGregor Commercial Historic District preserves buildings from the steamboat era, when the community played a major role in regional river shipping. Visitors can step inside the McGregor Historical Museum to see sand art bottles created by Andrew Clemens, a deaf artist who formed intricate designs inside glass bottles using naturally colored sand gathered from nearby river bluffs. The museum also features exhibits on McGregor’s steamboat past, the Ringling Brothers’ boyhood years in town, and the early ferry crossing established by Alexander MacGregor. It operates seasonally from Memorial Day through October.
Guttenberg
Guttenberg stretches along the Mississippi River, where German immigrants built limestone structures in the mid-1800s that still epitomize the downtown’s character. A paved riverwalk follows the shoreline through Ingleside Park, connecting Bussey Lake to the municipal marina and offering clear views of barges passing through Lock and Dam No. 10. Completed in the late 1930s, the lock remains an active part of river navigation, adding to the town’s sense of connection to the long flow of history. Nearby, the Lockmaster’s House Heritage Museum stands as one of the few remaining lockmaster houses along the Mississippi River still in its original location. The restored home preserves furnishings and everyday items from its years of operation.
Just beyond the lockmaster house, visitors find a mix of educational and natural attractions. The Guttenberg Fish Hatchery introduces native Mississippi River fish through hands-on exhibits, while the Bottomland Forest Trail loops through wetland forest along the river’s edge. The short walk offers opportunities to spot herons, songbirds, and other wildlife in a quiet, natural setting.
Elkader
Elkader centers on the Keystone Bridge spanning the Turkey River. Built in 1889, the limestone arch bridge stands among the longest twin-arch keystone bridges west of the Mississippi River. A sidewalk added in the early 20th century allows pedestrians to cross while looking down at the river below. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the bridge anchors the Elkader Riverwalk, which follows both banks of the Turkey River through downtown and links parks with fishing access points.
Much of Elkader’s history is pretty easy to explore. The Carter House Museum occupies an 1855 Greek Revival home built by town founder Timothy Carter and features original furnishings, period clothing, and exhibits on early settlement in Clayton County. Nearby, the Elkader Opera House has welcomed audiences since 1903 and continues to host concerts and performances in a historic auditorium with a pressed-tin ceiling and detailed woodwork.
Strawberry Point
You won't miss Strawberry Point when you pass the World’s Largest Strawberry rising 15 feet above the street, a roadside monument from the 1960s that remains a popular photo stop. The town takes its name from the wild strawberries that once covered the surrounding hills.
One of the best places to learn more interesting things about the town is in the seasonally operated Wilder Memorial Museum. The collection centers on more than 600 heirloom dolls gathered over decades by sisters Blanche Baldridge and Gladys Keneally, along with displays of Meissen and Dresden porcelain, Victorian furniture, military artifacts, Prairie farm exhibits, and Impressionist paintings.
Along Elkader Street, the Franklin Hotel stands as a prominent early 20th-century landmark. Though renovated, its interiors still reflect Romanesque Revival and Neoclassical design details. Some visitors stop in for its well-known buttermilk pancakes and strawberry shortcake, while others are drawn by long-standing local ghost stories tied to the building’s past. You're sure to remember this town every time you eat a strawberry in the future.
Oskaloosa
Oskaloosa protects open space by concentrating recreation along planned corridors while preserving surrounding agricultural land. The Mahaska Community Recreation Trail loops around the city, following former rail lines, woodlands, farmland, and city parks along a wide paved path. Trailheads at Edmundson Park and downtown near Full Bloom Brewhouse provide basic amenities, while much of the route remains intentionally undeveloped. Edmundson Park, which sits within city limits, features stone and timber structures built by Civilian Conservation Corps workers during the late 1930s. The park’s design earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places, and its fishing pond draws anglers year-round.
The Nelson Pioneer Farm & Museum offers a look into Oskaloosa’s earliest days, centered on the homestead established in the 1840s by Daniel and Margaret Nelson. The site includes a collection of historic buildings, most notably the brick family home and an early barn, both recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ely
Ely remains small by allowing nature to take up more space than pavement. The Palisades-Dows State Preserve covers 162 acres and includes several deep ravines known as Dark Hollow, Spring Hollow, and Blow Out Hollow, which cut through the landscape without trails or development. Along the preserve’s edge sits the Eastern Iowa Observatory, where astronomers benefit from zoning rules that limit light pollution and protect dark skies. The Hoover Nature Trail also passes through town, providing a route for walking, jogging, biking, and rollerblading.
Downtown Ely lines the trail in the historic Old Town District, where buildings dating to the 1860s house local businesses, including Dan and Debbie’s Creamery, which serves ice cream made onsite using Iowa dairy products. The Ely City Hall occupies a repurposed one-room schoolhouse listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Quiet Power of Preserved Iowa Towns
After crossing Elkader’s Keystone Bridge or walking the riverfront in Guttenberg, climbing Clark Tower in Winterset, or watching barges slide past the bluffs in McGregor, you'll remember these towns for a long time. They linger in memory because they have stayed unapologetically themselves rather than reinventing themselves for visitors. Their bridges still carry people, their parks still belong to locals, and their downtowns continue to serve daily life rather than staged experiences. Together, these undisturbed towns in Iowa reveal a quieter version of the country, where history remains part of the landscape and everyday routines, not something separated behind glass.
