Iowa Highway 22 (Iowa 22) is a west–east state highway that traverses primarily rural areas in east-central Iowa. The highway begins near Thornburg at an intersection with

Iowa Highway 21 Iowa Highway 21 (Iowa 21) is a state highway that runs from north to south in central Iowa. It has a length of . Iowa 21 begins at Iowa 149 west of Hedrick and ends at a freeway interchange with U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) in Wa ...

and ends in southwestern

Davenport Davenport may refer to: Places Australia *Davenport, Northern Territory, a locality * Hundred of Davenport, cadastral unit in South Australia **Davenport, South Australia, suburb of Port Augusta **District Council of Davenport, former local govern ...

, at U.S. Highway 61 Business.

Route description

Iowa Highway 22 begins west of Thornburg at Iowa Highway 21. It continues east through Keswick and

Webster Webster may refer to: People *Webster (surname), including a list of people with the surname *Webster (given name), including a list of people with the given name Places Canada *Webster, Alberta *Webster's Falls, Hamilton, Ontario United State ...

. Between Webster and South English, Iowa 22 is overlapped with

Iowa Highway 149 Iowa Highway 149 is a highway which runs from south to north in Iowa. It has a length of . Iowa 149 begins at U.S. Highway 34 in Ottumwa and ends at Williamsburg at Interstate 80. The first of Iowa 149 are overlapped by U.S. Highway 63 Busi ...

. It continues east from South English through

Kinross Kinross (, gd, Ceann Rois) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the historic county of Kinross-shire. History Kinross's origins are connect ...

and

Wellman Wellman may refer to: * ''Wellman'' (film), a 2003 Croatian documentary film about a well excavator *Wellman House, a historic site in Friendship, New York Cities and communities *Wellman, Iowa, a city in Washington County, Iowa, near Iowa City *W ...

before intersecting

Iowa Highway 1 Iowa Highway 1 (Iowa 1) is a state highway (Iowa), state highway in the U.S. state of Iowa that extends from Keosauqua, Iowa, Keosauqua to Anamosa, Iowa, Anamosa. It travels nearly , mainly through rich farmland and small communities. Iowa ...

Kalona Kalona is a city in Washington County, Iowa. It is part of the Iowa City metropolitan area. The population was 2,630 at the time of the 2020 census. Kalona is the second-largest city in Washington County. History Amish settlement in what is now ...

. It proceeds east from Kalona to go through

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

and then intersects

U.S. Highway 218 U.S. Highway 218 (US 218) is an original United States Highway that was created in 1926. Although technically a spur of U.S. Route 18, US 18, US 218 neither begins nor ends at US 18, but overlaps US 18 for near Charles C ...

and

Iowa Highway 27 O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad scal ...

. After crossing the Iowa River, it goes through

Nichols Nichols may refer to: People *Nichols (surname) *Nichol, a surname Places Canada * Nichols Islands, Nunavut United States * Nichols, California, an unincorporated community * Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, California * Nichols, Connecticut * Nic ...

, where a short overlap with

Iowa Highway 70 Iowa Highway 70 (Iowa 70) is a state highway spanning from north to south in eastern Iowa. It begins at Iowa Highway 92 in Columbus Junction, and ends at U.S. Highway 6 in West Liberty. Route description Iowa Highway 70 begins less than fro ...

begins. It then continues eastward and intersects

U.S. Highway 61 U.S. Route 61 or U.S. Highway 61 (U.S. 61) is a major United States highway that extends between New Orleans, Louisiana and the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River and is designated ...

at Muscatine. It goes around the west and north city limits of Muscatine before intersecting Iowa Highway 38 and Business US 61 and turns south into Muscatine. It then turns east along a route next to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

and passes through Buffalo before intersecting Interstate 280 at

. It then turns north to end at U.S. 61. To locals, Iowa Highway 22 is most notable as one of two main highways connecting Muscatine and

(

being the other). This eastern section of highway follows the Mississippi River. The segment of the highway between Muscatine and Davenport is part of the

Great River Road The Great River Road is a collection of state and local roads that follow the course of the Mississippi River through ten states of the United States. They are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Miss ...

History

Iowa Highway 22 was designated in 1926, and followed what is now U.S. Highway 61 between Muscatine and Davenport, passing through Blue Grass; U.S. 61 followed the Mississippi River route at the time. The highway was extended to Thornburg in 1931. For years, several sections of Iowa Highway 22 was either

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

or had a bituminous surface. One of these sections — the section between Muscatine and Blue Grass — was paved in 1957, the same year U.S. 61 and Iowa Highway 22 switched routes; U.S. 61 now went through Blue Grass, while Iowa Highway 22 now followed the Mississippi River through Buffalo. The last segment — between

east of

to Iowa Highway 405 north of Lone Tree, was upgraded from bituminous to paved in 1988.

Major intersections

References

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