The Iowa Central Air Line Rail Road, also derisively known as the Calico Railroad, is a historic railroad that was planned to operate in Iowa. The railroad was planned to operate from

Lyons, Iowa Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,469 as of 2020. Clinton, along with DeWitt (also located in Clinton County), was named in honor of the sixth governor of New York, DeWitt Cl ...

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha–Council Bluffs ...

and was organized in 1853. Iowa residents purchased stock and Iowa counties voted bonds to help build the road. Early in 1854 work on the track between Lyons and

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

was begun and progressed rapidly. The funds, however, were inadequate and some were misappropriated. As a result, work was stopped in June and engineers, contractors and laborers, involving some 2,000 persons in all, were left without their pay and without work. The Iowa counties, however, were compelled to redeem their bonds. The railroad company had a store at Lyons, and the goods (including a supply of calico) were distributed in partial payment to the workers; hence the nickname.

References

*Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940 {{DEFAULTSORT:Iowa Central Air Line Railroad Defunct Iowa railroads Predecessors of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company Railway companies established in 1853 Railway companies disestablished in 1864 Clinton, Iowa 1853 establishments in Iowa 1864 disestablishments in Iowa