From Boone to Dyersville to Dubuque, there’s plenty to see on the RAGBRAI 2026 route.
It was announced on Saturday, January 24, that the 53rd Annual Register’s Race Across Iowa route will stretch 391.4 miles from Onawa to Dubuque. During the July 19-25 trip, passengers will make stops in Harlan, Guthrie Center, Boone, Marshalltown, Independence and Dyersville.
Below is information about the starting, ending and overnight towns.
More: RAGBRAI route revealed! Where will Iowa’s classic rides go in 2026?
small rope
population: 2,906.
Previous time on RAGBRAI: Starting towns: 1977, 1983, 1987, 1995, 2004 and 2018.
The county seat of Onawa-Monona County is named after a character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 epic poem “The Song of Hiawatha.”
Edy’s Pie, America’s first chocolate ice cream bar, was born in Onawa in 1920 when a young customer of local ice cream parlor owner Christian Nelson had a hard time deciding between a chocolate bar or ice cream.
Edy’s Pie, formerly known as Eskimo Pie, was an invention of the Onawa people.
“I wanted both, but I only got a nickel,” the boy said, according to the Iowa History Journal.
Nelson discovered that he could harden melted chocolate into a solid shell by adding cocoa butter to the mixture, then dipping a dollop of vanilla ice cream in it and placing it in the freezer. He also invented a machine for dipping gold rods.
Nelson partnered with candy entrepreneur Russell Stover to distribute the product, naming it Eskimo Pie at the suggestion of Stover’s wife, Clara. In 2021, the product was renamed Edy’s Pie in honor of candy maker Joseph Edy.
On a less sweet note, Onava was the site of a small prisoner of war camp for German soldiers from 1944 to 1946 during World War II.
Harlan
From left, Steve Patrick, Leonard Wood, 1963 Daytona 500 winner Tiny Lund and Glen Wood in victory lane.
population: 4,893.
Previous time on RAGBRAI: Sleepover Town: 1976, 1983, 1994, 2000, 2008 and 2013.
Haaland is named for James Haaland, a two-term U.S. senator from Iowa who served during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. He also briefly served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
Milk & Honey is a local landmark, a unique farm-to-table restaurant in a rural town. Don’t miss the griddles, omelets, and French toast.
Milk & Honey, a farm-to-table breakfast and lunch restaurant in Harlan Square, Iowa, December 4, 2025.
Harlan is the hometown of DeWayne Louis “Tiny” Lund, a skilled stock car racer who won the 1963 Daytona 500. Lund began his career at the local Shelby County Speedway, a one-third-mile dirt track.
Lund was given the ironic nickname because his 6-foot-5, 260-pound frame could barely fit into the race car he raced. Lund had taken the win at Daytona just days after taking over from his friend Marvin Panch, who had been involved in a serious crash during a sports car race.
Lund was killed in a crash on August 17, 1975, during the Talladega 500. The Shelby County Speedway’s annual Lund Jr. Memorial Weekend celebrates his life and legacy.
Guthrie Center
Day 4 RAGBRAI – Guthrie Center – July 25, 2001, riders entered the Guthrie Center to register. Photo taken by chind (July 25, 2001)
population: 1,593.
Previous time on RAGBRAI: Sleepover Town: 1974, 1983. Towns passed through: 1986, 2001, 2006, 2013.
The Guthrie Center, located at the far west end of the Des Moines metro, became a sleepover town twice in RAGBRAI’s first 11 years. Although RAGBRAI has passed through four times since then, it was only this year that it became an overnight town again.
The county’s first railroad was a narrow-gauge railroad that is now part of the Raccoon River Valley Trail, which connects with other trails in central Iowa to form a 120-mile paved loop said to be the longest in the nation.
Guthrie Center is the county seat of Guthrie County.
Boone
A distant store. The chain’s first store is in Boone, the company’s longtime headquarters.
population: 12,460
Previous time on RAGBRAI: Sleepover Town: 1975, 1988, 1998, 2011. Through towns: 1973, 1976, 2008, 2018.
Two iconic Iowa businesses have opened their first stores in Boone. The Fareway supermarket chain, incorporated in Ames, originally opened a store in Boone in 1938 and was headquartered there until 2024, when it moved to the Des Moines suburb of Johnston.
RAGBRAI cyclist rides past Casey’s Grocery Store in 2025.
Founded in 1968 in Boone and currently headquartered in Ankeny, Casey’s General Stores is the third largest convenience store chain in the United States.
Today, both Casey’s and Fareway serve hungry RAGBRAI riders across Iowa.
Boone natives include: Mamie Dude Eisenhower, wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
This is a railroad town, home to the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad Excursion train and a railroad museum.
More: Fareway moves headquarters from Boone to Johnston after 85 years
marshalltown
Workers place the spire atop the Marshall County Courthouse in Marshalltown on Friday, Oct. 16, 2020. The courthouse was damaged by a tornado on July 19, 2018.
population: 27,591.
Previous time on RAGBRAI: Sleepover Town: 1974, 1994, 2004, 2012.
On July 19, 2018, an EF-3 tornado ripped through Marshalltown, damaging nearly every building in the city. Now they have been restored, including the historic courthouse, which was battered by the storm and lost its spire.
Taylor’s Maid Rite, a franchise of the loose meat sandwich chain, is located at 106 South Third Avenue, a local family-run landmark that has been in business since 1928. Marshalltown is also home to the nationally renowned tool company that bears its name.
independent
population: 6,064
Previous time on RAGBRAI: Sleepover Town: 1982, 2007, 2014. Passing Towns: 1989.
On the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, Independence is a fitting place for RAGBRAI to celebrate. It was founded in 1847 when the Iowa General Assembly moved the Buchanan County seat to its then new location. With the Fourth of July approaching, residents of the village chose to name the village in honor of the Declaration of Independence, according to the Independence Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Wapsipinicon Feed Mill was built in 1854 and is a local landmark on the Wapsipinicon River. The current mill was built in 1867 and operated until 1976, when it was converted into a museum by the Buchanan County Historical Society.
RAGBRAI pays homage to water towers in its logo this year, and the freestanding water tower is appropriately painted with a blue tank and red and white stripes.
Denali’s on the River is located on the Wapsipinicon River in the northwest part of town. It has a wide terrace and is a fun place to enjoy a meal and watch the river flow by.
dyersville
population: 4,477
Previous time on RAGBRAI: Sleepover Town: 1989, 2007. Towns passed through: 1983, 1993, 2010.
RAGBRAI riders can experience paradise in Dyersville, an eastern Iowa town famous for having the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams” filmed on two farms just outside its borders.
One of the most memorable moments in the classic baseball movie is when James Earl Jones, who plays writer Terrence Mann, is bewildered by the ghost players on the baseball field built among tall cornstalks by Kevin Costner’s farmer character Ray Kinsella. He asked Kinsella, “Is this heaven?” Kinsella replied, “No, it’s Iowa.”
In the decades since the film was filmed, the location has become one of Iowa’s most popular tourist attractions. In 2021, Major League Baseball hosted its first game at a special field built next to Movie Park.
In 2010, the last time RAGBRAI passed through Dyersville, its route happened to pass through the filming location. Major League Baseball will host another game at the venue on August 13 between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies, less than three weeks after RAGBRAI’s visit.
Dubuque
Dubuque is located on the Mississippi River.
population: 59,667.
Previous time on RAGBRAI: Ending Towns: 1974, 1983, 1993, 2010.
The first town established in Iowa would be the last town on RAGBRAI 53.
French merchant Nicholas Perrot was one of the first Europeans to arrive in the upper Mississippi Valley, establishing a trading post near modern-day Dubuque in the 1680s. Nearly a century later, in 1785, French-Canadian explorer Julien Dubuque became the first permanent settler in the town that bears his name.
Dubuque was founded in 1837, attracting immigrants from Ireland and Germany. The Archdiocese of Dubuque, which served these immigrants, remains the home of the Roman Catholic Church in Iowa.
Dubuque’s scenic location on the west bank of the Mississippi River, stretching to the high bluffs beyond, includes historic buildings, a casino, the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, and a unique cable car that transports passengers from the downtown basin to the hilltop community.
Philip Joens rode some of the 20 RAGBRAIs. He has completed nine treks from river to river. He covers retail and real estate for The Des Moines Register and can be reached at 515-284-8184 or pjoens@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared in the Des Moines Register: RAGBRAI 2026: What to know about this trip’s overnight towns