Brown immediately constructed a primitive dam and then built the town's first mill. In 1841, they formed a partnership that bought out Shepherd's claim and platted out a town they called Rapids City. It was right next to the rapids-a prime spot to build a mill-the last set of rapids on the river before the Cedar fed into the Iowa River, meaning that goods milled on the spot could be carried by boat down river to the Mississippi. Brown had experience as a miller and Greene had surveyed much of eastern Iowa, so both saw the value of the spot Shepherd had claimed. The true founders of the city were George Greene, Nicholas Brown, and a few others. Shepherd later tried the same tactic with perhaps the first settler on the west side of the river, Robert Ellis, but Ellis happened to be chopping wood at the time and warned that someone would be dead if Shepherd did not retreat. Shepherd drove Stone across the river, claiming that Stone had built his cabin on Shepherd's land, then sold Stone's cabin to a buyer named Hull. Early on, it appears that he 'jumped the claim' of another squatter, Wilbert Stone, who had built a cabin and platted out a town, some distance south of Shepherd's cabin, that he called Columbus. Shepherd was a squatter who claimed the land without legal title and also a reputed ne'er-do-well, who, if he was not a horse thief himself, definitely consorted with them. The first settler on the site of the future city was Osgood Shepherd, who built a log cabin (which he called a tavern) in 1837 or 1838 next to the Cedar River (then known as the Red Cedar) at what is now the corner of First Avenue and First Street Northeast. The location of present-day Cedar Rapids was in the territory of the Fox and Sac tribes at the time of European American settlement. History Downtown Cedar Rapids, overlooking the Cedar River Second Avenue SE in downtown Cedar Rapids, looking towards the Cedar River Early history The name 'Five Seasons' and representations of the sculpture appear throughout the city in many forms. The symbol of the five seasons is the Tree of Five Seasons sculpture in downtown along the north river bank. The city is the setting for the musical The Pajama Game and the comedy film Cedar Rapids.Ĭedar Rapids is nicknamed the 'City of Five Seasons', for the so-called 'fifth season', which is time to enjoy the other four. In the 1990s and 2000s, several Cedar Rapidians became well-known actors, including Ashton Kutcher, Elijah Wood, Terry Farrell, and Ron Livingston. The Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is also a part of a Combined Statistical Area (CSA) with the Iowa City MSA.Ī flourishing center for arts and culture in Eastern Iowa, the city is home to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, the Paramount Theatre, Orchestra Iowa, Theatre Cedar Rapids, the African American Museum of Iowa, and the Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance. Cedar Rapids is an economic hub of the state, located at the core of the Interstate 380 corridor. The estimated population of the three-county Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the nearby cities of Marion and Hiawatha, was 255,452 in 2008. Īt the 2020 United States Census, the city population was 137,710. It is a part of the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City region of Eastern Iowa, which includes Linn, Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Jones, Johnson, and Washington counties. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, 20 miles (32 km) north of Iowa City and 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city.

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