Iowa Hawkeyes

We arranged a number of touring events in Iowa for July and August, 2014.

Which raised the questions – Why is Iowa Iowa?

And, why are folks from Iowa called Hawkeyes?

Turns out a newspaper publisher and a judge came up with the name Hawkeye back when Iowa was a mere territory. They wanted to honor Black Hawk, a Sauk tribal war chief. They were also fans of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans and of Hawkeye, the story’s hero. This, at least, is the theory as to why Iowans are Hawkeyes.

Why is the State of Iowa called “Iowa”? The four names at the top of this page are actually the same name.

The state was named after the Iowa River, and the river was named after a Native-American tribe in the region. The tribal name was Ayuxwa, which the French spelled as Ayoua, and the English later spelled Ioway. Americans, for whatever reason, dropped the ‘y’, making it Iowa.

I don’t know why we dropped the ‘y’ at the end. I kinda like Ioway.