The city of Fairfield is conscious that it is a small place in a very big world. With just under 10,000 people, it is located more than one hundred miles from the nearest big city, in the rolling farmland of the American Midwest filled with corn, soybeans, cattle and hogs.
Fairfield has the advantages of a small place in a rural setting: natural beauty, plenty of elbow room and a human pace and scale where longtime residents know each other and are quick to offer a helping hand. But city leaders recognized long ago that its future depends on the world around it: specifically, on attracting and retaining people who can build an economy that reaches far beyond its borders.
The city has a record of success in that regard. According to Godaddy’s Venture Forward research project, Fairfield has nearly six times more small businesses per 100 people than the average for US cities. Dubbed “Silicorn Valley” by Wired magazine, the city has the kind of entrepreneurial culture and person-to-person network for which that other valley is famous. It has a diversified economy of education, software development, telecom, financial services, manufacturing and marketing companies, some employing thousands.
From Spiritual to Digital
Fairfield took an unexpected path toward becoming what a state governor called “one of the state’s economic superstars.” In the 1970s, followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (who taught the Beatles transcendental meditation) founded a teaching center there. It drew young people by the busload to what would become, decades later, an important educational institution for the city, the Maharishi International University. More spiritually attuned than financially savvy, they soon started running out of money, so they launched their own small businesses, from computer magazines to petroleum brokerages and accounting services. That sparked a culture of entrepreneurship that continues strong. Today, over one-third of the town’s workforce is self-employed and runs one or more small businesses.
When the internet emerged in the 1990s, a few entrepreneurs quickly formed ISPs offering dial-up service. Among them was LISCO. Its founder was a relentless innovator who went on to introduce DSL internet and, with the help of a Federal loan, fiber-based service. Over several years, the company laid thousands of miles of fiber both underground and on utility poles throughout Fairfield and surrounding rural areas. Designed with redundancy for reliability, the LISCO fiber network became one of the most advanced in Iowa, delivering high-speed internet, phone and television services. Coverage in Fairfield now exceeds 95% and adoption 90% of households, and LISCO continues to invest in expanding its network.
To reach the remaining underserved, the county’s Board of Supervisors used a 2022 Federal grant to contract with Natel Broadband to build a mixed fiber/wireless network into rural areas surrounding Fairfield and bring a further 2,600 homes high-speed connectivity. The program also offers an affordable broadband option, providing low-income households with a $30 monthly subsidy for internet service.
Preparing the Next Generation of Success
Small cities are frequently talent poor, because lack of local opportunity causes its youth to leave town when they can. Fairfield is determined not to fall into that trap. Its entrepreneurial culture helps. So does Portrait of Graduate, a program that equips students with competencies in communication, leadership, workforce readiness and critical thinking, with work-based learning opportunities, career academics, internships and apprenticeships. Skills instruction ranges from business to welding and healthcare services. The most recent senior class graduated with nearly 600 college credit hours that they could apply to ongoing education.
The Maharishi International University (MIU) has evolved far beyond its origins teaching meditation. MIU offers undergraduate and graduate programs in business administration, media, regenerative agriculture and a range of wellness and consciousness practices. Its computer science program is the fifth largest in the US. Few communities of Fairfield’s size can boast an educational asset of this caliber.
As students leave education, they can take advantage of the Fairfield CoLab, a co-working space that offers access to financial and business development services from local community colleges, banks and private investors. The CoLab hosts an annual business pitch event, tech meetups and seminars in business planning. It currently has about 30 members, who pay a monthly fee to use the building. The CoLab has plans to add more private offices to its facility as they are so popular that they have generated a waiting list. For more established businesses, the Fairfield Economic Development Association has developed the FEDA Business Park, where the first building has been purchased by a motorsports company for a new dealership.
Innovating in Quality of Life
Already possessed with an entrepreneurial ecosystem, Fairfield has taken steps to fill in its inevitable gaps. One of the most basic and yet innovative involves childcare. America has little standardized daycare, leaving working parents to cobble together solutions ranging from grandparents and babysitters to expensive private facilities. Fairfield has opened a new, nonprofit childcare center that will serve 185 children from ages six weeks to 12 years. It is the product of business-government-citizen collaboration, with a hospital donating land, state government providing a US$1.5 million grant and private donations ranging from $300 to $1.25 million, led by Cambridge Investment Research, which is headquartered in Fairfield. The Cambridge Little Achievers Center will ensure that people working in microbusinesses, startups and established companies do not have to choose between family and career.
Fairfield has ploughed its economic success back into creating the social, cultural and recreational amenities that a knowledge economy requires. Unusually for a city of its size, it has developed an Arts & Convention Center featuring a theater, gallery, exposition hall and meeting space. It is transforming an old Armory building into music venue able to seat up to 700. These will not only serve Fairfield’s people but increase its attractiveness throughout the region.
Deep Green Machine was founded in 2013 and moved to Fairfield in 2020. It is the first fully equipped public makerspace in Fairfield and Jefferson County. Designed to support STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math), the facility provides access to advanced equipment and workshops for creators, entrepreneurs and hobbyists. Members can use a wide variety of tools, including a CNC plasma cutter, CNC mill and router, a tool room lathe, welding and fabrication tools, a complete cabinet-grade woodshop and specialized spaces such as a clay studio with pottery wheels and kilns. Whether tinkering in the repair workshop or engaging in creative fabrication, Deep Green Machine helps foster a hands-on, skill-building environment that complements the region’s entrepreneurial ethos and strengthens the local innovation economy.
Fairfield has also invested in essential infrastructure improvements to sustain its growth and quality of life, including a comprehensive upgrade to its wastewater system. Prompted by a 2008 consent order from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the city embarked on a multi-year overhaul of its aging and leaky sewer infrastructure. The Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) now features a state-of-the-art chemistry laboratory, enabling precise, real-time monitoring of chemical composition, flow rates and system pressures throughout the plant. Upgrades include giant augurs that efficiently lift sewage into the treatment system, variable frequency drives to reduce energy costs and strategic use of generators to lower peak utility charges. The city’s sewer pipes and trunk lines have been expanded and modernized, with high-tech cameras used to identify and repair problem areas through trenchless lining techniques, avoiding disruptive excavations. The separation of sanitary and stormwater systems is nearly complete, enhancing the resilience of both networks. The WWTP also serves surrounding communities by processing septic waste and offering laboratory services.
Digital and Solar
The Fairfield Public Library is core to digital inclusion for residents needing help with education, digital access and skills development. In the library and over the phone, it offers afterschool tutoring for students, help with job search and resume writing, digital literacy training and veterans’ assistance with social services and employment. These services are supplemented by adult education and digital skills courses from Indian Hills Community College, and further strengthened through a growing suite of online resources. Through a public-private partnership, the library provides access to LinkedIn Learning with Lynda, an expansive online library of courses in technology, business and the arts. This allows residents to build skills at their own pace, conveniently and effectively. Additional digital tools include BrainFuse HelpNow for live online tutoring in subjects like calculus and English language learning, BrainFuse JobNow for job search support including resume writing and interview practice and BrainFuse VetNow, offering veterans personalized assistance with social services and reintegration into civilian life. The library also offers Mango Languages to support Fairfield’s diverse population, Consumer Reports for unbiased product reviews, the Foundation Directory Online for grant research and Data Axel Reference Solutions for business and residential contact information – all backed by staff who provide training and guidance both in-person and over the phone.
Sustainability is also a major priority for Fairfield’s leadership and people because quality of life is one of the community’s key attractions. The city invests annually in upgrading parks and hiking trails and has launched larger restoration efforts for neglected orchards and degraded prairie. The Fairfield Go-Green Plan has driven major growth in solar power not only in Fairfield but across Iowa, with Fairfield companies accounting for hundreds of projects. One company, Ideal Energy, is ranked #1 in the state for contracts. MIU has developed a 1.1 MW solar power plant that combines active tracking – moving solar panels to compensate for weather and the sun’s movements – with vanadium-flow battery storage to form what it believes to be the most advanced solar installation in the nation. It is only one of many organizations taking advantage of Fairfield’s solar cluster to shift some of their energy generation away from the grid and ensure a more sustainable future. Fairfield has also partnered with Alliant Energy to expand its renewable energy infrastructure. In January 2024, the City Council approved a 20-year lease agreement allowing Alliant Energy to construct a solar array on land north of town near the Fairfield Municipal Airport. The project, which significantly increases the city's revenue compared to agricultural use of the land, is now moving into its construction planning phase.
Building on these efforts, Fairfield’s leadership has embraced a broader vision of resilience and sustainability through the Resilient Action Committee (RAC), tasked with developing a comprehensive 10-year Community Resilience Plan. This plan, shaped by six community-based subcommittees, integrates data-driven priorities from existing plans while fostering partnerships across local government, businesses and civic institutions. At the heart of the initiative is the concept of a circular community—one that maximizes the reuse, repair, and reinvention of local resources to reduce waste, pollution, and carbon emissions. The community’s annual Resilient Community Challenge event highlights the progress already underway, as well as new strategies for sustaining Fairfield’s environmental and economic vitality. The first projects stemming from this resilience framework are expected to launch in 2025.
A small place in a big world, Fairfield has leveraged the happy accidents of its history, and the entrepreneurial spirit of residents, businesses and government, to make a point – that “the middle of nowhere” is a myth for places that know what it takes to prosper today and are determined to make it happen.
Population: 15,663
Website: www.visitfairfieldiowa.com | growfairfield.com | www.miu.edu
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