Icaria at Corning in Utopian Iowa

The school was orignally built for another community. When that community failed it was given to the Icarians and moved to Corning. There were three subsequent moves and that explains the mystery of the moving school.

The Icarians who went west from Nauvoo settled in Corning Iowa on the Nodaway River.
http://www.icaria.net/


The school was originally built for another community. When that community failed it was given to the icarians and moved to Corning. When the Icarians split between the Young Icarians and the Old Icarians in Corning, a second community was build. Both factions claimed the school house and a court ruled it should be used by both. So it was moved to a site half way between the two. Much later, after yet another split when the remaining true believers went still further west, to California, the land was sold and the school was given to the town, which moved it to a sight along the Nodaway River, where it remained for years, and where I first saw it. Then when the project began it was moved again to the site of the development of the project. That makes four moves, each over some miles.
When I could not find the school house I contented myself with Lake Icaria on the north side of the town as one enters from the Interstate highway. I later found out that the first year when the Icarians arrived, they survived the winter by digging into the northern slopes along the lake and living in caves. My source on this and just about everything else about Corning now is Saundra Lenininger, the project officer who is developing the historic French Icarian village. She has quite a story to tell about this site is being developed, and I guess it is similar to the back stage story for the development of other sites, like New Harmony in Illinois.

The influence of the Icarians takes many forms. One of its member who left the community and stayed in Iowa, A.H. Piquenard, designed the Iowa state capitol.