If you’re looking for a cute Iowa town to visit, look no further than Bentonsport! Love Exploring has named Bentonsport as Iowa’s most charming historic town!. According to the website, Bentonsport is a small village in Van Buren County that was named after Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. The history of the village dates back to the 1830s, with Giles O. Sullivan building his log cabin “at the foot of what is now Walnut Street” in December of 1834. The says that “the first lock and dam was authorized by the territorial legislature of Iowa in 1839 and the villages on either side of the river soon hosted two grist mills, two ferries and a saw mill.” Then, Iowa’s very first paper mill was built in Bentonsport in 1952.