Iowa's nickname, the Hawkeye State, is older than the state itself. It dates to the 1830s, before Iowa became a state in 1846. The name does not come from a hawk. It traces to a person.
The Name Honors Chief Black Hawk
The nickname references Chief Black Hawk, the Sauk leader who fought to hold his people's land along the Mississippi River during the Black Hawk War of 1832. After the war, as settlers moved into what would become the Iowa Territory, some local leaders wanted a name that honored Black Hawk rather than cast him as an enemy. "Hawkeye" served that purpose.
The Two Men Who Popularized It
Two early Iowa boosters get the credit. Judge David Rorer of Burlington is usually named as the person who first pushed "Hawkeye" as a nickname for the territory. Newspaper editor James G. Edwards helped lock it in. Edwards renamed his Burlington paper the Hawk-Eye, giving the term a steady public platform. The name spread through the 1830s and 1840s, and by statehood in 1846 it was already in common use.
From Territory to the University of Iowa
The University of Iowa later adopted the Hawkeyes as the name for its athletic teams, and Herky the Hawk became the cartoon mascot fans know today. The bird mascot is why many people assume the nickname is simply about a hawk. The origin was always about Black Hawk; the mascot came much later.
The Short Version
Iowa is the Hawkeye State because of Chief Black Hawk, a name championed by a Burlington judge and a newspaper editor in the 1830s and carried forward for nearly two centuries.
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