Anamosa

Town and administrative headquarters of Jones County, southeast Iowa, USA; population (late 1990s est) 5,400. It is situated 35 km/22 mi east-northeast of Cedar Rapids, on the Wapsipinicon River where it is joined by Buffalo Creek. Originally called Lexington, it later took its American Indian derived name. It is an agricultural trade centre, with limestone and concrete industries. The Anamosa state penitentiary is a gothic revival building, constructed in 1873, and listed in the national register of historic places.

Anamosa is host to annual festivals: the Grant Wood Festival celebrating the famous painter who was born there, and the Pumpkinfest, celebrating Anamosa's claim to be the pumpkin capital of Iowa. Stone City, 6 km/4 mi to the west on the Wapsipinicon, was an 1880s limestone boom town. In the early 1930s, Wood painted there and established an arts colony.