This week in Oskaloosa
About Oskaloosa
Oskaloosa grew up on a high ridge between the Skunk and Des Moines rivers, where a party led by Nathan Boone, Daniel Boone's youngest son, arrived in 1835; the town was platted in 1844 and named seat of Mahaska County that same year. Railroads reached it in the 1860s and 1880s and carried its coal across the state, and by 1895 Mahaska County was digging more coal than any other county in Iowa. Quakers opened Penn College here in 1873, and it carries on today as William Penn University. The city square is still the heart of town: a 29-foot octagonal bandstand from 1912 sits near Sherry Fry's bronze of Chief Mahaska, whose 1909 dedication drew about 12,000 people, all framed by the red-brick 1886 courthouse with its clock tower. Today about 11,500 people live here, and the square fills up for Art on the Square in June, the Sweet Corn Serenade in July and the Lighted Christmas Parade in December.