Editing Van Buren County, Iowa (section)

==History==
[[File:VanBurenCoIowa2.jpg|left|thumb|Plaque on the Van Buren County courthouse, indicating its age and historic status.]]
Van Buren County was formed on December 7, 1836, as a part of [[Wisconsin Territory]], and was split off from [[Des Moines County, Iowa|Des Moines County]]. It was named for President [[Martin Van Buren]]. It became a part of [[Iowa Territory]] (later the state of Iowa) when that territory was organized on July 4, 1838.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/WI_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm|title=WI: Individual County Chronologies|website=publications.newberry.org|access-date=September 28, 2016|archive-date=April 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414132220/http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/WI_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The county's courthouse was built in September 1843 in the style of [[Greek Revival]] and stands as Iowa's oldest, and the nation's second-oldest, courthouse in operation.<ref>[http://www.iowacounties.org/About%20Us/AboutCoGov/County%20Pages/VanBuren.htm Van Buren County<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020072824/http://www.iowacounties.org/about%20us/aboutcogov/county%20pages/vanburen.htm |date=October 20, 2007 }}</ref>
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"The Honey War" refers to a colorful episode in Van Buren County's history when the State of Missouri and Wisconsin Territory border came into dispute. Missouri attempted to collect taxes from residents north of the disputed [[Sullivan Line]] of 1816, which residents said was not rightfully theirs to tax. The sheriff of Van Buren County subsequently arrested and jailed the sheriff from Kahoka, Missouri, and Missourians were charged with "stealing honey from bee trees" in what is now Lacey-Keosauqua State Park. Each governor sent troops to resolve the problem but no bloodshed resulted. The matter was turned over to the U.S. Congress for arbitration.<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Van Buren County, Iowa, a Pictorial History|publisher=Villages of Van Buren|page=46|date=2007}}</ref> The dispute, however, was not resolved until 1846, when Iowa became a state. Congress ruled "in favor of Iowa, allowing the original Sullivan line of 1816 to remain intact".<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Van Buren County, Iowa, a Pictorial History|publisher=Villages of Van Buren|page=46|date=2007}}</ref>

Van Buren County is also home to Iowa's oldest community theater group still in operation, the "Van Buren Players," founded in 1963.<ref>{{cite book |author=Mary Ovrum; editor|title=The Van Buren Players|publisher=The Van Buren Players|date=1999}}</ref>