Located near a Cedar Rapids airport runway, this four acre landscape design was commissioned for Iowa's Sesquicentennial, in coordination with the University of Iowa. Interest in Herd's Earthworks by the University's Museum of Art grew from Art history professor Joni Kinsey's research for her book Plain Pictures which concludes with the artist's work.

A companion piece to the New York Countryside image, both works were created in the style of regionalist painters Thomas Hart Benton (NY) and Grant Wood (Iowa). The Iowa image was planted in watermelons, squash, soybeans, milo, oats, corn and clover; along with the addition of sand for the road and crushed limestone for the house.