Mason City is a city in and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,338 in the 2020 census. Mason City is known for its musical theatre heritage, serving as the inspiration for the town of “River City” in The Music Man. It is also home to a significant collection of Prairie School style architecture. Along with nearby Clear Lake, the city forms a regional commercial, industrial, and cultural hub for north-central Iowa.
The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area which includes all of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties is located at the transportation junction between Interstate 35 and the Avenue of the Saints. Geographically, Des Moines is located 120 miles to the south, and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-Saint Paul are 135 miles to the north, making the local area approximately halfway between the two metropolitan areas.
Points of interest include the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum, historic East Park, the Prairie Rock Trails Bike Park, and the Meredith Willson boyhood home and museum. The most significant Prairie School structures are the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Stockman House, home of the Architectural Interpretive Center and the Park Inn Hotel-City National Bank, Wright’s last remaining intact hotel. Rock Crest-Rock Glen, the world’s largest unified neighborhood made up of Prairie School homes is also in the city. Public education is provided by North Iowa Area Community College and Mason City Community School District. The Winnebago River traverses the community to the southeast.
History The land upon which Mason City now stands was previously a grove of trees surrounded by the expansive and gently rolling tallgrass prairies of north-central Iowa. This wooded area was situated near the limestone outcroppings that line the confluence of Lime Creek (now known as the Winnebago River) and Willow Creek. In the years immediately preceding the east-to-west expansion of the United States, this land was inhabited by the people of the Ioway, Winnebago, Meskwaki (Fox), Sauk, and Dakota Native American tribes. The first White settlers arrived in the area in 1853, and they were John Long, Joseph Hewitt, and George Brentner, who hailed from LaSalle, Illinois. Long was a member of a Free Masonic Order, and they initially named the dense wood stand as Masonic Grove. The next year, in 1854, more settlers involved in Free Masonic groups arrived, and platted a town, first known as Shibboleth and later Masonville. Coincidentally, the name Masonville was proposed by John Long to honor his son, Mason, who died en route to then Shibboleth. In 1854, John McMillin opened the first store, and Dr. Silas Card opened the first medical practice in the area. Ultimately, in 1855 the name was changed to Mason City to differentiate from another Masonville in Delaware County.
Until 1855, Mason City was without local county government, and Cerro Gordo County (named for the Battle of Cerro Gordo during the contemporaneous Mexican–American War) was attached to the Floyd County government and commission. In August 1855, Cerro Gordo County citizens voted to organize their county government, and three commissioners were appointed to decide on the county-seat. The commission had selected Mason City as its preferred county seat. In December 1856, the Iowa General Assembly voted to relocate the seat of government closer to Clear Lake, then known as Livonia. In April 1858, county citizens countered that change and voted against relocating the seat from Mason City, where it has remained ever since.
Early growth (1850–1900) The United States Post Office Department started service to the town in 1857. In 1870, Mason City, Iowa was officially incorporated as a town with Darius B. Mason as the first mayor. Historically, the largest industry in the city was brick and tile manufacturing, limestone quarrying, and cement production. The land in the vicinity of Mason City is rich in clay and limestone deposits that allowed the growth of a large masonry-based industry. Much of the success of the Mason City Brick and Tile industry was achieved under the leadership of O.T. Denison, who was a proprietor in three of the many brick yards, including the largest, the Mason City Brick and Tile Works. Under his direction, the company came to own most of the brick works in town, the North Iowa Brick and Tile Works being an exception. Until about 1934, Iowa used more drain tile than any other area of equal size in the world, and Mason City was the center of this manufacturing. The city was first connected to the railroad in 1869 by the Dakota Branch of the St. Paul and Milwaukee Railroad. It was later connected to the rest of the state with a line built by the St. Louis and St. Paul Railroad, which shipped large amounts of coal mined in southern Iowa to the northern side of the state to fuel emerging heavy industries, such as brick and tile in the vicinity. In 1896, the Mason City and Clear Lake Railway was originally founded as a rail transit between the cities. Since 1937, the railway has operated only as a freight route and is currently known as the Iowa Traction Railway. The Iowa Traction Railway is known as the last electric shortline interurban railway in the nation. By 1903, Mason City had a population of 12,000 and streecar service had been extended to Clear Lake, which allowed the nearby resort town to become easily accessible to Mason City residents.
Era of sustained growth (1900–1970) At the turn of the 20th century, in 1907, renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright visited Mason City to complete design work for a prominent businessman. Mason City was fortunate to have Wright and several of his associates, including Walter Burley Griffin, Marion Mahony Griffin, and Barry Byrne, leave behind several notable examples of their distinctive prairie school architectural style. Burley Griffin and Mahony Griffin later gained fame for designing the plans for the new capital city of Australia, Canberra. Among Wright's contributions to the community are the first Prairie School-designed home in Iowa, the Frank Lloyd Wright Stockman House constructed in 1908; the Park Inn Hotel, the sole surviving hotel designed by Wright, built in 1910; and the City National Bank building, completed concurrently with the hotel. The Rock Crest-Rock Glen area witnessed the development of the largest collection of Prairie School-style designed homes on a unified site. The First National Bank was robbed by John Dillinger and his gang on March 13, 1934. They escaped with $52,000 despite the fact the bank actually had more than $300,000 on hand that day.
In 1954 a new breed of horse was introduced in Mason City. The Pony of the Americas was first bred in Mason City by resident Les Boomhower. He intended the pony to be medium-sized, calm, and safe for children to learn on. It was first developed as a cross between Appaloosa, Arabian, and Shetland pony breeds.
In 1959, early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) took off from Mason City Municipal Airport after a concert at the Surf Ballroom in nearby Clear Lake, Iowa, en route to Fargo, N.D. The plane crashed a few miles west of the airport in an historic event later referred to as the Day the Music Died. Holly, Valens, Richardson and pilot Roger Peterson all died in the accident.
Modern era (1970–present) During the 1970s, the originally dominant brick and tile industry began to decline, prompting Mason City to diversify its economy. On February 23, 1977, a very rare February tornado occurred in Mason City. Further challenges emerged in the 1980s with the Farm Crisis, which severely impacted the Upper Midwest agricultural economy and the economic prospects of nearby farms. This led to a state-wide downturn and migration out of the area. Mason City was the site of the 1993 Iowa Murders, and later was the site of a high-profile disappearance investigation, following the abduction of KIMT reporter and news-anchor, Jodi Huisentruit in 1995. Since the mid-1990s, Mason City has focused on revitalizing its downtown area, constructed the Southbridge Mall, a hockey arena, and developed a regional retail economy centered on the west side of town nearing Clear Lake. Since the turn of the 21st century, Mason City has experienced steady community development, and has continued the revitalization of its downtown district and the architecturally significant Park Inn Hotel and First National Bank. In 2008, Mason City experienced extreme flooding where the Winnebago River reached its highest crest recorded in history at 18.72 feet which overtopped the levee system.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Mason City is located in the north-central region of Iowa, and is 120 miles north of the state capital of Des Moines, and 135 miles south of the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The city lies along the Winnebago River, formerly called Lime Creek and Willow Creek, the main outflow of Clear Lake, which is 8 miles to the west. Other creeks within city limits include Camlus Creek, Chelsea Creek, and Ideal Creek. There is also a slough on the northeastern side of the city called Buffalo Slough bordered by Plymouth Road. The vicinity is located within the Winnebago-Shell Rock-Cedar-Iowa River watershed, which later joins the larger Mississippi River system downstream.
The geology of Mason City and other surrounding areas in Cerro Gordo County includes deposits of clay, limestone, dolomite, and sandstone. These sedimentary rocks fueled an important economic sector of longstanding quarrying, brick, and cement production. Much of the remaining land within and near city-limits was once tallgrass prairies, but has now been developed as rich farmland. This region of the Upper Midwest is known as the Prairie Pothole region includes flat landscapes and glacial lakes.
Climate Mason City has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb), bordering closely on the hot-summer variant. This area has four distinct seasons, with humid, warm summers and cold, snowy winters.
Demographics
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Mason City had a population of 27,338 and 12,271 households, of which 6,838 were families. The population density was 981.4 inhabitants per square mile (378.9/km2). There were 13,584 housing units at an average density of 487.7 per square mile (188.3/km2), of which 9.7% were vacant; the homeowner vacancy rate was 2.8% and the rental vacancy rate was 10.4%.
94.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 5.2% lived in rural areas.
Of the 12,271 households, 23.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 40.1% were married-couple households, 8.0% were cohabitating couples, 30.6% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present, and 21.3% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present. About 44.3% were non-families; 37.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 42.7 years; 22.6% of residents were under the age of 20 (including 20.3% under 18), 6.3% were from 20 to 24, 23.6% were from 25 to 44, 25.3% were from 45 to 64, and 22.2% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.3% male and 51.7% female, or 93.3 males for every 100 females and 91.6 males for every 100 females age 18 and over.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 23,793 87.0% Black or African American 791 2.9% American Indian and Alaska Native 125 0.5% Asian 406 1.5% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 125 0.5% Some other race 529 1.9% Two or more races 1,569 5.7% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 1,820 6.7%
2010 census