Shellsburg, Iowa

The Shellsburg Bridge is a historic structure located in Shellsburg, Iowa, United States. It spans Bear Creek for 64 feet (20 m). In April 1915 the Benton County Board of Supervisors contracted with Alfred Vinall to build the new bridge near Shellsburg's downtown area. He used a special design by the Iowa State Highway Commission (ISHC), and completed the project in late 1915 for $6,081.06. The ISHC designed plain bridges for its rural spans, but because this span is in town it features decorative elements: bichrome concrete detailing, molded concrete balustrades, and incised spandrel panels. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Canton Township is one of twenty townships in Benton County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2000 census, its population was 847.

KRQN (107.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Licensed to Vinton, Iowa, United States, the station serves the Cedar Rapids area. The station is owned by George S. Flinn, Jr., and is programmed by Gorilla Broadcasting Company. KRQN's transmitter is located east of Vinton near Pleasant Creek State Recreation Area.

Benton Township is one of twenty townships in Benton County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2000 census, its population was 900.

Fayette Township is a township in Linn County, Iowa. The township's population as of the 2020 census was 1,720.

Pleasant Creek State Recreation Area is a 1,927-acre (780 ha) state recreation area in Linn County, Iowa, United States, near the city of Palo. The recreation area is home to the 410-acre (170 ha) Pleasant Creek Lake. Both the lake and the park were formed in the 1960s to provide eastern Iowa with a large recreational lake. Pleasant Creek Lake features four boat ramps and a kayak launch, and its clear water makes it a popular site for scuba diving. The lake also has several fishing jetties; fish living in the lake include channel catfish, muskellunge, largemouth bass, and white bass. The entire recreation area is also open to hunting. The park includes eight miles (13 km) of multi-use trails used for hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, and skiing and snowmobiling in the winter. It also has three modern campsites and four camping cabins.

Palo is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,407 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area. Palo is located near Pleasant Creek State Recreation Park.

The Upper Stone Schoolhouse, also known as the Scott House, is a historic One-room schoolhouse located east of Vinton, Iowa, United States. Built in 1875, this is an unusual example of a stone one-room school. There was only one other built in Benton County, about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the southeast. The stone schoolhouse was replaced by a wood-frame building to the south sometime between 1905 and 1910 to accommodate the large number of students. It served eight rural sections of farmland from the time . The Scott family, who owned the adjacent farmland, bought the stone school building after it closed and converted it into a house. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC) was Iowa's only nuclear power plant. It is located on a 500-acre (200 ha) site on the west bank of the Cedar River, two miles (3.2 km) north-northeast of Palo, Iowa, USA, or eight miles (13 km) northwest of Cedar Rapids. DAEC entered operation in February 1975. On August 10, 2020, the plant cooling towers were damaged during a derecho, and repairs were deemed uneconomical, as the plant had already been scheduled for decommissioning in October 2020.The operator and majority owner is NextEra Energy Resources (70%). The Central Iowa Power Cooperative owns 20% and the Corn Belt Power Cooperative owns 10%. In January 2018, NextEra Energy announced that it was unlikely that DAEC would operate beyond 2025. The plant was given a 20-year license extension to 2034 but considered closing after Alliant Energy, which contracts for 70% of the plant's electricity, announced it would instead be buying electricity from subsidized sources such as wind and natural gas. In July 2018 the expected closure date was amended to October 2020. The unit permanently ceased making power on 10 August 2020, due to storm damage from the August 2020 Midwest derecho. An NRC report of the incident stated that "the vacuum drawn in secondary containment by the standby gas treatment system was slightly below the technical specification (TS) limit", indicating that the secondary containment system might not have been fully effective had it been challenged. Thus the incident was considered by nuclear safety experts to be "a close call".

Atkins is a city in Benton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,056 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Fremont Township is one of twenty townships in Benton County, Iowa, USA. At the 2000 census, its population was 1,736.

The Chain Lakes Bridge is a historic structure located southeast of Palo, Iowa, United States. It carries a pedestrian trail for 370 feet (110 m) over the Cedar River. The Linn County Board of Supervisors began planning for this span in the early 1880s. They appropriated $20,000 for this two-span Pratt through truss The Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio, which built bridges in the county since 1879, completed this structure in 1884. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. While it was built to carry vehicular traffic, it is now in a nature preserve maintained by the Linn County Conservation Board.