Cedar Rapids – The City of Five Seasons

Nicknamed the City of Five Seasons for the traditional four seasons and a “fifth season”, which is a time to enjoy the other four, Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. Named for the Cedar River, Cedar Rapids is one of only few cities in the world to have governmental offices on a municipal island. Cedar Rapids is the cultural as well as the economic hub of Iowa. It is home to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, the Paramount Theater, and the Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance. The city is at the core of the Interstate 380 Cedars Rapids/Iowa City Technology Corridor of Linn, Benton, Jones, Johnson, and Washington Counties.

In 1838, the first permanent settler, Osgood Shepherd arrived in Cedar Rapids. William Stone named the town Columbus when Cedar Rapids was first established in 1838. But it was renamed Cedar Rapids, for the rapids in the Cedar River at the site in 1841 after it was surveyed by N.B. Brown and his Wiktionary associates. On January 15, 1849 Cedar Rapids was incorporated.

Cedar Rapids boasts of famous residents including American Gothic painter Grant Wood, journalist and historian William L. Shirer , writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten, and aerodynamics pioneer Dr. Alexander Lippisch. Cedar Rapids has played an instrumental role in Muslim culture in the United States. The racial makeup of the city is mixed including White, African American, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino and other races.