Mason City is a city and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,338 in the 2020 census, a end from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes whatever of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties. It is commonly referred to as the “River City”, as the city grew taking place centered upon the Winnebago River.

The region concerning what would difficult be first called Shibboleth was a summer home to the Sioux and Winnebago nations. The first agreement that became Shibboleth was acknowledged in 1853 at the confluence of the Winnebago River and Calmus Creek. The town had several names: Shibboleth, Masonic Grove, and Masonville until Mason City was adopted in 1855, in rave review of a founder’s son, Mason Long.

In 1854, John McMillin opened the first store, and Dr. Silas Card opened the first medical practice in the area. Lizzie Thompson traditional the first schoolhouse in a log cabin in 1856. The United States Post Office Department started utility to the town in 1857. Mason City was named the county chair in 1858. In 1870, Mason City, Iowa was officially incorporated as a town past Darius B. Mason as the first mayor.

Mason City is known for its musical heritage, consistently producing flourishing performers and educators. The city’s “favorite son,” Meredith Willson, grew happening in Mason City and played in the Mason City Symphonic Band as a high school student. Willson’s crowning completion was the well-known stage musical The Music Man. Many of the characters in it were based on people Willson knew from his childhood in Mason City. And it then features the Parker’s Opera House.