The Cedar River is a 338-mile-long (544 km)[2]river in Minnesota and Iowa. It is a tributary of the Iowa River, which flows to the Mississippi River. The Cedar River takes its name from the red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) trees growing there, and was originally called the Red Cedar River by the Meskwaki.[3] The first Mississippi steamboat reached Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1844, and during the next decade, the Red Cedar (as it was still called) was an important commercial waterway.[4] The surrounding region is known officially as the Cedar River Valley, though it is more commonly referred to simply as the Cedar Valley. The stream is young geologically, and only in places where the glacial material has been removed is the underlying bedrock exposed.[1]
In 1993, the river flooded some areas of downtown Cedar Rapids. The river crested at 19.83 feet. This was the worst flood in Iowa's recorded history, before the Cedar River flooded again in 2008.
In 2008, flooding of the river caused the evacuation of around 20,000 of Cedar Rapids' residents and flooded over 1,200 blocks of the city.[6] Upriver, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metropolitan area was less affected, thanks mainly to the large dikes that protect the downtowns of both cities. To the north, the flooding Cedar River collapsed Charles City's landmark suspension bridge, as well as destroying many homes and community parks.[citation needed]
^U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National MapArchived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed May 13, 2011
^Luther A. Brewer and Barthinius L. Wick, eds., Section Early Steamboating on the Cedar, Chapter XL, The Bridges across the Cedar at Cedar Rapids and Early Steamboating on the Cedar River, History of Linn County Iowa, Pioneer, Chicago, 1911; pages 423-434.
