The 7 Friendliest Little Towns In Iowa

Iowa's small-town hospitality runs through the festivals and community traditions that fill the calendar. Decorah throws Nordic Fest every July to celebrate its Norwegian heritage. Dyersville opens the Field of Dreams to anyone who wants to play a few innings. Le Mars serves cones at the Ice Cream Capital while Winterset honors the actor born on its main street. Here are seven of the friendliest little towns in Iowa.

Decorah

Decorah is a town of around 7,500 in northeast Iowa, set within the Driftless Area and home to Luther College. The Upper Iowa River runs through it, with limestone bluffs rising up to about 280 feet above the water. Canoeing, kayaking, and tubing are the most popular ways to experience the river, while trout and smallmouth bass draw anglers throughout the season. Paddlers share the water with eagles, herons, and other wildlife along the forested bluffs and savanna stretches.

The town's Norwegian-American heritage shows up most clearly at Nordic Fest each July, a free three-day street festival held since 1967. The schedule includes Nordic folk dancers with the Nordic Dancer Orchestra, traditional weaving and woodworking demonstrations, the Bunad parade of Norwegian folk costumes, and Viking combat reenactments at the Skjaldborg Viking Encampment that kids can join. Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School on Water Street, anchors the heritage scene year-round. The museum holds more than 33,000 artifacts including the 25-foot wooden sailboat TradeWind and an immigrant log house from 1853.

Dyersville

Dyersville is best known as the filming location for "Field of Dreams." The original 1989 movie set, with the white farmhouse and the corn-rimmed diamond, is open daily and free to walk on. The neighboring Field of Dreams Ballpark opened in 2022 and now hosts Youth Baseball, Youth Softball, and Senior Baseball tournaments through the summer. Tours of the site and the new ballpark run on a regular schedule.

The town also calls itself the Farm Toy Capital of the World, and the National Farm Toy Museum spreads two floors of miniature tractors, dioramas, and farm-equipment replicas across roughly 30,000 square feet. The Basilica of St. Francis Xavier, completed in 1889 and elevated to minor basilica status by Pope Pius XII in 1956, is one of fewer than a hundred minor basilicas in the United States. Its twin 212-foot Gothic Revival spires are visible for miles across the surrounding farmland.

Amana Colonies

The Amana Colonies are seven villages established in 1855 by German Pietists known as the Community of True Inspiration, who had emigrated from Hesse and settled briefly near Buffalo, New York, before moving to Iowa. The communal way of life lasted until "The Great Change" of 1932, when the colonies reorganized as a joint-stock corporation. The German heritage still shows up in the annual events. Oktoberfest is the main weekend each year, with three days of food, beer, music, and historic streets to walk through. The festival opens with a ceremonial keg-tapping and a parade led by the Amana Colonies' Burgermeister, complete with German costumes and brass bands. Live polka music plays alongside bratwurst, sauerkraut, spaetzle, schnitzel, strudel, and locally brewed beers served in traditional steins.

To learn more, visit the Amana Heritage Museum, which occupies a cluster of 19th-century buildings including the Noé House, built in 1864 as a communal kitchen and later used as a doctor's office. A schoolhouse built in 1870 and an audiovisual program on the colonies' history fill out the visit. Golfers can play the Amana Golf Club, a 500-acre course with elevation changes, rolling hills, streams, and other water hazards across five sets of tees.

Le Mars

Le Mars sits on the Floyd River northeast of Sioux City with a population just over 10,000. It is home to Wells Enterprises, the maker of Blue Bunny ice cream, and earned the title Ice Cream Capital of the World in 1994 as the location with the largest single-site ice cream production anywhere. The summer Ice Cream Days celebration brings a parade and downtown festivities, and Art in the Park runs alongside with regional makers and handmade goods.

The Classic Car Show fills the streets later in the day. Blue Bunny and local vendors keep cones, sundaes, floats, and limited-edition flavors moving until the downtown smells like waffle cones. Throughout the year, the town also displays fifty-five six-foot ice cream cone sculptures designed by local artists, an installation inspired by Chicago's Cows on Parade.

The Plymouth County Fair runs at the Le Mars fairgrounds in late July and has been held there since September 1941. Called "The Best Five Days of Summer," it is one of Iowa's largest county fairs, drawing tens of thousands of visitors. The Tonsfeldt Round Barn, built in 1918 and moved to the fairgrounds in 1981, sits at the Pioneer Village.

Orange City

Orange City was settled in 1870 by Dutch colonists from Pella who originally called the area Holland before renaming it for the House of Orange. The Dutch heritage shows up most clearly at the Tulip Festival every May. The schedule includes a parade with Dutch dancers, the traditional street scrubbing ritual, and tulip gardens and flower displays across downtown, city parks, and heritage sites. Carnival rides, a full midway, and food vendors selling Dutch pastries fill out the weekend, with concerts and choir performances running on multiple stages.

The Vogel Windmill, also called the Old Mill, sits in the heart of town surrounded by Dutch-style storefronts and tulip beds in spring. The Dutch American Heritage Museum preserves the stories, artifacts, and traditions of the Dutch immigrants who shaped this corner of northwest Iowa. Inside are clothing, household items, regional costumes, wooden shoes, and festival attire.

Winterset

Winterset was supposed to be called Summerset when it was founded in 1849, but it was so cold the day the name was chosen that the settlers picked the opposite. The town now has a population of just over 5,000 and sits in the rolling farmlands about 35 miles south of Des Moines. It is also the birthplace of the actor John Wayne, who was born here in 1907. The John Wayne Birthplace & Museum holds the largest collection of John Wayne artifacts in existence, with personal items, scripts, costumes, and props.

The best place to see John Wayne's films is The Iowa Theater, a restored 1940s Art Deco movie house on the courthouse square. The Madison County Covered Bridge Festival is Winterset's signature October event, a two-day celebration of the historic covered bridges made famous by the novel and film "The Bridges of Madison County." Tours include local guides sharing stories from the bridges' 19th-century origins. Regional artisans fill the square with handmade goods, pottery, textiles, woodcraft, and photography. A parade with marching bands, floats, vintage tractors, and local groups runs through downtown, and food vendors serve apple cider, kettle corn, pork sandwiches, and homemade pies. Folk musicians and bluegrass groups perform alongside heritage demonstrations such as blacksmithing, quilting, and woodworking.

Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon was established in 1847, sits near Lisbon, and counts about 4,500 residents. It is home to Cornell College, founded in 1853, with a campus on the National Register of Historic Places that is built largely of local limestone. King Chapel, completed in 1882, is the campus landmark, a Romanesque-Gothic structure built of local limestone with a tall central spire and stained-glass windows. Old Sem, built in 1853, is the oldest building on campus.

The campus also hosts Heritage Days every July, with a parade, live music, local food vendors, carnival rides for the kids, community competitions, a 5K run, and a beer garden running into the evening.

On the first weekend of May, the downtown turns over to Chalk the Walk. The festival brings together more than 500 chalk artists, including professionals, families, and children, who fill the streets with chalk murals. Food trucks line the square, live music plays through the day, and artists pay no fee to participate.

Bridging Connections, Making Friends

The community events and annual festivals in these Iowa towns invite everyone in. Mount Vernon does it through Chalk the Walk and Heritage Days. Winterset has its Madison County Covered Bridge Festival and the John Wayne Birthplace & Museum that brings fans to the town. Decorah's Nordic Fest fills the streets every July, and Dyersville's Field of Dreams is still open to anyone who wants to play a few innings. Whatever season you arrive in, the welcome runs about the same.