city in and county seat of Muscatine County, Iowa, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Muscatine is a city in Muscatine County, Iowa. In 2020, 23,797 people lived in the city of Muscatine.[3]
Muscatine, Iowa | |
---|---|
Muscatine County Courthouse | |
Nickname(s): "The Pearl of the Mississippi", "The Pearl City" | |
![]() Location in the U.S. state of Iowa | |
![]() | |
Coordinates: 41°25′26″N 91°3′22″W | |
Country | ![]() |
State | ![]() |
County | Muscatine |
Incorporated | 1839 |
Area | |
• City | 19.25 sq mi (49.86 km2) |
• Land | 18.20 sq mi (47.13 km2) |
• Water | 1.05 sq mi (2.73 km2) |
Elevation | 587 ft (179 m) |
Population | |
• City | 23,797 |
• Rank | 22nd in Iowa |
• Density | 1,307.81/sq mi (504.95/km2) |
• Metro | 54,741 |
Time zone | UTC−6 (CST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
ZIP Code | 52761 |
Area code | 563 |
FIPS code | 19-55110 |
GNIS feature ID | 0465186[2] |
Website | www |
Muscatine began as a trading post in 1833. The city was first called Bloomington in 1839. The name was later changed because there were so many other cities named Bloomington. Some people think the name "Muscatine" came from the name of a local Native American tribe.
A person from Germany founded a button company in Muscatine in 1884. They made buttons from clam shells found in the Mississippi river. Muscatine was and still is called the "Pearl button capital of the world."
Sam Clemens, also called Mark Twain, worked at the newspaper the city for a short amount of time. He also wrote about Muscatine in his book Life on the Mississippi.
"And I remember Muscatine--still more pleasantly--for its summer sunsets. I have never seen any, on either side of the ocean, that equaled them. They used the broad smooth river as a canvas, and painted on it every imaginable dream of color, from the
daintinesses and delicacies of the opal, all the way up, through cumulative intensities, to blinding purple and crimson conflagrations which were enchanting to the eye, but sharply tried it at the same time. All the Upper Mississippi region has these extraordinary sunsets as a familiar spectacle. It is the true Sunset Land: I am sure no other country can show so good a right to the name. The sunrises are also said to be exceedingly fine. I do not know."
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.