The town of Dysart will celebrate its 150th birthday July 2-4. Events begin with a community church service Sunday morning at 10 and end with the Independence Day parade Tuesday morning at 11. Here’s a detailed rundown in the North Tama Telegraph. Sunday’s highlights include a 1916 barn tour and restored prairie tour. Monday afternoon there will be a town photo followed by a time capsule burial. (I hope they print out the town photo and put it in the time capsule!)
When the Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Minnesota Railway was extended west from Vinton in 1873, the towns of Garrison, Dysart, and Traer all sprang to life. Dysart was named after politician Joseph Dysart, who had been a state senator and was Iowa lieutenant governor for one term. It was not incorporated until 1881, but that’s immaterial on town anniversaries.
According to History of Tama County (1883), the first train made it to Dysart on December 27, 1873, but this has to be a typo for 1872. I say that because the Vinton Eagle was already running a railroad timetable to Dysart on January 22, 1873, and the first train made it to Traer on July 27. This branch line from Vinton was named the “Pacific Division”, because the BCR&M had a grand vision.
But what the railroad didn’t have was a lot of time or clout. A short 2015 review in The Annals of Iowa of The Iowa Route: A History of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway notes: “Strategic alliances, most notably with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad (CRI&P), and occasional antagonisms, especially with the CB&Q, show how the BCR&N was neither master of its own destiny nor even a particularly important player in the world of railroads.”
The BCR&M became the BCR&N on June 27, 1876, according to a website dedicated to railroad bridges. That syncs with mentions in the Tama County and Cedar Rapids papers. (Related post.)