Welcome to the Land Office. For a new settler in the area this would be an important first stop. The Land Office is like a real estate office today. It registered claims on land, took care of buying and selling land, and surveyed land to make sure that the boundaries were correct.

On the wall is the map of what Linn County looked like in 1869. Can you find Cedar Rapids? Now where is Marion? At this time it was still a journey of several hours from Cedar Rapids to Marion. What is the town on the other side of the river from Cedar Rapids? That's Kingston. Until about 1876, the west side of the river was a different town. What names on this map do you recognize?

As we go north up the river from Cedar Rapids, whose farm is just above the city on the west side? Robert Ellis. What do you think is there today? Moving east to the edge of the city, do you see the name S.C. Bever? What do you think is there now? Yes, Bever Park and all the land up Bever Avenue is that area. S.C. Bever was a builder and built many of the homes in that area. What other names do you recognize?