Cedar Rapids Forestry Department

About forestry service, 50214, Otley, IA, US, Iowa

Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 137,710 at the 2020 census, making it the second-most populous city in Iowa. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, 20 miles (32 km) north of Iowa City and 128 miles (206 km) northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital. Cedar Rapids is the economic hub of Eastern Iowa, located at the core of the Interstate 380 corridor. The population of the three-county Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, which includes the nearby cities of Marion and Hiawatha, was 276,520 in 2020. The Cedar Rapids metropolitan area is also part of a combined statistical area with the Iowa City metropolitan area. == History == === Early history === The location of present-day Cedar Rapids was in the territory of the Meskwaki and Sauk peoples at the time of European American settlement. 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. 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. 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.