Blue Grass, IA

Blue Grass is a city in Scott and Muscatine counties, about ten miles southwest of Davenport along Highway 61. The 2020 census counted 1,666 residents. The town was platted in 1853 on prairie that had been used as a camping place along an old route between the Mississippi and Cedar rivers; the blue-tinted grass gave the place its name. It was incorporated after a 1903 fire made the need for town fire equipment impossible to ignore. Most of Blue Grass still reads as a farm community with Davenport close by.

ATTRFarragutful / CC BY-SA 4.0

Residents are in the Davenport Community School District, and Blue Grass Elementary's 1957 building is a reminder of how the school district became part of the wider city area. Even the street names carry a little local texture - Mayne Street and Juniata Street preserve spellings that are still in use. Blue Grass is a small Iowa city with a prairie name, a two-county footprint, and a daily orbit around Davenport.