Clarion, IA

At the 2020 census, Clarion was a Wright County city and county seat of 2,810 people, built around a courthouse square and a long-running argument over where county government belonged. Wright County held its first court sessions in a log cabin west of present-day Eagle Grove in 1855. In 1858 the seat moved to Liberty, where a two-story frame courthouse went up, before Clarion became the civic center. Downtown still carries 19th-century buildings, and the Wright County Courthouse remains the architectural heavyweight.

ATTRAnn Sullivan-Larson / CC BY-SA 3.0

Clarion's best local oddities sit at the Heartland Museum on Highway 3. The complex combines tractor collectors, the Wright County Historical Society, the Clarion Arts Council, teddy-bear collectors, and Alvina Sellers's hat collection. Sellers became the Iowa Hat Lady, ran a millinery shop, appeared on David Letterman, and left behind more than 6,000 hats, with over 300 on display. The 2006 Aquatic Center adds slides, drop slides, a beach-style entrance, lap lanes, and diving boards. Clarion is a courthouse town with a hat museum, a teddy-bear room, and a pool big enough to make the county seat feel like a summer destination.