The wooden barge Iowa was built in 1852 by the builder Francis N. Jones in Buffalo, New York. The vessel was originally built as a sidewheel steamer than converted to a propeller and finally a barge in 1867/68. The cost to convert the vessel to a barge (with a single mast) was $15,000 and she was used to carry up to one million board of feet of lumber from Peshtigo, Wisconsin to Chicago. Her intended consort was the tug Admiral D.D. Porter.
The Iowa's official number was 44157. In 1861 she was valued at $30,000 ($28,000 in 1863) and rated for insurance as B1.

Last Document Of Enrollment Surrendered: Cleveland: 11/29/1869: "Lost".

"The Iowa was a sidewheel steamer when she first came out in 1852. A few years later she was altered into a screw propeller, in which shape she rendered good service until purchased by the Peshtigo Lumbering Company, when she was converted into a barge, her machinery being placed in the propeller Boscobel..." Milwaukee Sentinel 11/20/1869.
11/13/1869: The barge Iowa, while being towed by the tug Admiral Porter, ran ashore about 1 1/2 miles north of Taylor and Bach's pier and about 4 1/2 miles south of Kewaunee, WI. Despite the efforts of the Admiral Porter and another tug the Kitty Smoke, the Iowa could not be pulled off. The Milwaukee Sentinel of 11/22/1869 reported that her outfit had been recovered and that the vessel itself had gone to pieces. In December, the hulk was burned and according to the Kewaunee Enterprise, she burned to the water's edge, with "what was left of her floated to ashore" Her ironwork was then removed.

From the Milwaukee Sentinel dated 12/18/1869: "WRECK BURNED - The Kewaunee Enterprise States that on the 8th some person who evidently had nothing better to do, set fire to the wreck of the barge Iowa, which went on the rocks four miles and a half, south of this place, in the town of Carlton, about a month ago. It took the old hulk two days to burn down to the water and then what was left of her floated ashore."