History

Professor Thomas H. Macbride of the University of Iowa and a number of his colleagues from other Iowa colleges established Lakeside in 1909 as a private summer field station. It was one of the first in the United States. In 1936 Lakeside became a state institution, and today it is run cooperatively by Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, and the University of Iowa through the Iowa State Board of Regents. Since its foundation, Lakeside’s mission has been to provide students an opportunity to get hands-on experience working with Iowa’s natural and human environments through its field-oriented summer courses and to provide research facilities and support for graduate students and faculty working on research projects in northwestern Iowa.

Lakeside will be observing its 100th anniversary in 2009. Visit this page for more historical information as the centennial approaches.