Town file
Muscatine, Iowa
Muscatine, Iowa (Muscatine County, Iowa) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 371, "Dear Murder Diary..." (16 March 2023). Muscatine, Iowa, sits on the Mississippi River in Muscatine County, on the Illinois border.
- Town
- Muscatine
- County
- Muscatine County
- State
- Iowa
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 371
- Approximate location
- 41.419, -91.068
Episode 371 / 16 March 2023 / 166 min / full
Dear Murder Diary...
"We're going to Muscatine, Iowa, in eastern Iowa, right on the Illinois border, with the river separating Iowa from Illinois; this is in Muscatine County." about 0:05:24
The case: Murders of Cynthia Walker and Carol Ann Willitz (February 22-23, 1979). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2023
- Population
- 23,579
- Median age
- 35.9
- Median household income
- $44,535
- Median home value
- $163,800
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $910 a month
- Cost of living
- 75
- Religious
- 41.4%
- Property crime
- ▲ slightly above average
- Violent crime
- about 20 to 25%
History, in brief
- Mark Twain lived in Muscatine briefly during the summer of 1855 while working at the local newspaper, the Muscatine Journal; his brother was a part-owner. about 0:06:28
- Twain wrote that he remembered Muscatine for its summer sunsets and had never seen any on either side of the ocean that equalled them. about 0:06:51
- In 1884 the German immigrant J.F. Beppel founded a pearl button company, producing buttons that looked like pearls by machine-punching freshwater mussel shells. about 0:08:05
- In 1915 Weber and Sons Button Company, Inc. was the world's largest producer of fancy freshwater pearl buttons, and Muscatine became known as the Pearl Button Capital of the World. about 0:08:37
- Buttons were still being manufactured in Muscatine in 2004, when the town celebrated the hundredth anniversary of button making. about 0:09:00
- Muscatine is also known as the watermelon capital of the world. about 0:10:37
- The town's motto is the Pearl of the Mississippi, or the Pearl City, and its area code is 563. about 0:06:00
- Muscatine is about two and a half hours from Des Moines, an hour and ten minutes from Cedar Rapids and two hours and twelve minutes from Albia, Illinois. about 0:05:38
The reviews read out
5 stars
"Muscatine has many things to offer visitors: the new Marrell hotel on the renovated River Drive overlooking the Mississippi, family-owned shops around Second Street, painting classes at Booneies on the Avenue, karaoke on Wednesday nights at Mississippi Brew and activities at Weed Park."about 0:11:02
4 stars
"Very small but character-filled, with well-decorated boutiques, cafes and community events, river views and a lit-up bridge, good for boating, fishing and floating."about 0:12:41
3 stars
"The reviewer had not had much trouble with crime or the police, but said there were several incidents involving their seventeen-year-old daughter that the police did nothing about."about 0:13:40
3 stars
"Not always noticeable, but always on my mind."about 0:14:03
2 stars
"The reviewer has lived in Muscatine all their life and says it has only got worse: nowhere to shop, roads that damage cars, schools that are only okay, though the community college is a plus."about 0:14:59
1 star
"The words let's go are written out fifty-eight times, with racial slurs mixed in."about 0:15:48
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- West Liberty, Iowa15 miles
- Davenport, Iowa26 miles
- Clarence, Iowa32 miles
- Libertyville, Iowa60 miles
- Bonaparte, Iowa63 miles
- Bellevue, Iowa67 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.