Editing Mason City, Iowa (section)

==History==
[[File:Post card from 1910 of Mason City Hide and Fur Compant of Mason City Iowa.jpg|thumb|Post card from 1910 of Mason City Hide and Fur Company of Mason City Iowa]]
The region around what would later be first called '''Shibboleth''' was a summer home to the [[Sioux]] and [[Ho-Chunk|Winnebago]] nations. The first settlement that became Shibboleth was established in 1853 at the confluence of the [[Winnebago River]] and Calmus Creek.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.masoncityia.com/html/history.htm |title=Mason City Chamber of Commerce |publisher=History |access-date=2010-12-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223083719/http://www.masoncityia.com/html/history.htm |archive-date=February 23, 2010 }}</ref> The town had several freemasonic influenced names: Shibboleth, Masonic Grove, and Masonville until Mason City was adopted in 1855, in honor of a founder's son, Mason Long.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chicago and North Western Railway Company|title=A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ|year=1908|page=100}}</ref>
[[File:FI0005752.jpg|alt=Mason City and meat market|thumb|left|Ebeling Meat Market, Main Street, 1914]]

In 1854, John McMillin opened the first store, and Dr. Silas Card opened the first medical practice in the area. Lizzie Thompson established the first schoolhouse in a log cabin in 1856. The [[United States Post Office Department]] started service to the town in 1857. Mason City was named the county seat in 1858.<ref name="mcityphist">{{cite web|url=http://www.masoncity.net/pView.aspx?id=827&catid=54 |title=Mason City Portal |publisher=History |access-date=2010-12-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100814153042/http://www.masoncity.net/pView.aspx?id=827&catid=54 |archive-date=August 14, 2010 }}</ref> In 1870, Mason City, Iowa was officially incorporated as a town with Darius B. Mason as the first mayor.<ref>visitmasoncityiowa.com/about-us/mason-city-history/</ref>

===Musical heritage===
The city's "favorite son," [[Meredith Willson]], grew up in Mason City and played in the Mason City Symphonic Band as a high school student. Willson's crowning achievement was the famous stage musical ''[[The Music Man]]''. Many of the characters in it were based on people Willson knew from his childhood in Mason City.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zolotow|first1=Sam|title='The Music Man' Wins 5 of 18 Tony Awards...|journal=The New York Times|date=April 14, 1958|page=21|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990CE0D71730E73BBC4C52DFB2668383649EDE}}</ref> Mason City also features the [[Parker's Opera House]].