LANSING, Iowa - Tucked into the tip of northeast Iowa, Lansing has been overlooked for a long time.

In 1851, a 20-year-old steamboat passenger named Harriet Hosmer noticed its steep bluff and won a footrace to the top; the peak became Mount Hosmer. Lansing was the county seat until 1867, when a posse from Waukon stole the county records. And it was a boomtown in the 1870s and ‘80s, when farmers beat a path to its grain elevator and levee.

Riverboat captains built stately homes at the foot of the bluff, where they could keep an eye on one of the Mississippi’s sharpest bends. In 1897, the Lansing Co. began punching buttons out of mussel shells and still is making buttons today, though now they’re plastic. And people always have come to fish.

But Lansing is far from cities and freeways. So over the years, only a few travelers noticed the lovely Victorian homes on the hill, some of them inns, and the picturesque way in which Main Street tumbled down to the river. Just a few knew about the hairpin curves that would take them up Mount Hosmer for one of the Mississippi River Valley’s most magnificent views.

Many did appreciate the 1931 Black Hawk Bridge, whose Tinker Toy girders look tenuous and graceful at the same time. In 1999’s ‘‘The Straight Story,’’ about an elderly man who drove a 1966 John Deere lawn mower across Iowa to visit his brother in Wisconsin, director David Lynch filmed Lansing’s bridge instead of the one Alvin Straight really used, calling it ‘‘a great bridge.’’

And lately, more and more people have heard a kind of siren call, following it only to find themselves under the spell of this Lorelei on the Mississippi.

‘‘We were coming back from the Sand Hills in Nebraska and stopped here on a whim,’’ says Mike Martin, a writer who was living in Milwaukee at the time. ‘‘My wife fell in love with it, so much she cried when we left. A year later, we came back and thought, ‘Oh my God, it’s so much cheaper than in Milwaukee, maybe we can afford something here.’ ‘‘

Now Martin and his wife, artist Laura Siitari, run RiverRoad Gallery on Main Street and live in an 1872 house on the flank of Mount Hosmer, with flowers spilling from its terraced front yard: ‘‘It’s just a spectacular place to live,’’ he says.

When Chicagoan Jude Gries first saw Lansing three years ago, while looking for a quieter place to live, she had the same reaction as Siitari.

‘‘I came over the bridge and said, ‘Mom, I have to live here,’’’ said Gries, an artist. ‘‘My eyes just filled with tears, and I said, ‘This is where I want to be for a while.’ This area, to me, is just jaw-dropping.’’

Artist and singer Bonnie Koloc already knew the area, having grown up in Waterloo and fished in Lansing as a child. She’d spent her adult life in Chicago and New York, but when she married at 44, she wanted to show Iowa to her East Coast husband, writer and publisher Robert Wolf.

‘‘I took Bob through here to show him Iowa isn’t all flat, and he just fell in love with it,’’ Koloc said. ‘‘He said, ‘This is monumental; I could live here.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m not sure I can.’ ‘‘

That was 15 years ago.

‘‘We’ve always been going to leave, but we keep staying,’’ Koloc says.

It’s fitting that so many of those who love Lansing best are creative types. They’re following in the steps of Harriet Hosmer, a young sculptor who had traveled from Massachusetts to St. Louis to study anatomy after being denied admittance to medical schools in the East.

After her trip up the Mississippi, she returned home and went on to Rome, where she joined an international circle of artists that included novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, who modeled one of his characters after her. Hosmer quickly became renowned for her neoclassical sculptures and was only 28 when she sold one to the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII.

In Lansing, the artists often can be found at the Channel Cat, run by Julie Berg-Raymond. Her Main Street coffeehouse/bookstore/gallery is the physical adjunct to the free monthly magazine she publishes about life on the Upper Mississippi.

‘‘Originally, I didn’t want coffee; I wanted it to be a gallery with offices for the Tapestry upstairs,’’ Berg-Raymond said ruefully. ‘‘But people just wanted coffee.’’

Mike Goze and his wife, Becky Faust Goze, were among those who stopped in last weekend; they live in Minneapolis but often spend weekends at their cabin in Lansing, where Goze spent part of his childhood. A member of Wisconsin’s Ho-Chunk Nation, he returned in March from a year in Washington, D.C., where he was chief of staff for assistant secretary for Indian Affairs Dave Anderson.

‘‘A lot of people come here for the peace and quiet, to get away from the city,’’ Goze said. The recent influx of artists, added Faust Goze with approval, ‘‘makes it feel different.’’

The newcomers have brought art, music and new ideas to Lansing. But the town hasn’t changed much. You still can’t get a latte there, though you can get a million other things - literally - at Horsfall’s Lansing Variety, whose ramshackle storefronts occupy a block of Main Street.

‘‘We may not have the right stuff, but we always have a lot of stuff,’’ says Paul Horsfall, whose main store is famous in the region for towering piles of low-priced wares stacked along narrow aisles.

Sunburned farmers drive their pickups into town for the Friday-night fish fries, and processions of motor-cyclists make a racket as they follow the Great River Road through town.

Stuffed game still is propped on the awning of the taxidermy shop, and faded signs on the 1885 storefront across the street still advertise fishing tackle, ammunition and souvenirs.

Boats speed past the foot of Main Street, which ends in water. From the foot of the stone 1860s grain elevator, Mississippi Explorer captain Annie Weymiller pilots tourists into the scenic sloughs of the Mississippi, pointing out fields of water lilies, a beaver lodge, blue herons and a huge nest with two juvenile bald eagles peering over the edge.

A native of Lansing, Weymiller spent years working in Milwaukee, Denver and Tucson, but she returned five years ago and hopes to make a living on the river. So does the Mississippi Explorer’s owner, Jack Libby, a former Mississippi towboat captain who is now the pilot of a casino boat docked in Gary, Ind., but would like to return to Lansing.

The increasing tourism will make that easier, though now the locals have to compete with affluent out-of-towners who think Lansing real estate is a steal compared with Galena and Lake Geneva.

‘‘If you see a nice home up in the bluffs, it’s probably a summer home, because people around here can’t afford that,’’ says 18-year-old Emily Libby, who narrates the Sunday-afternoon pontoon-boat trips.

In an 1872 frame house on the river, Steve DuFord sells homemade jam and plans his next business move. The former Chicagoan, who found his way to the region through the Internet, just bought the 1873 Thornton House with his partner, Frank Ebersold, and plans to reopen it as a stylish bed-and-breakfast. He calls Lansing ‘‘a little sleeper town,’’ poised for profit - and change.

Recently, he said, a man came by DuFord’s Mount Hosmer Jam Shop and said he was thinking of starting a winery in town.

‘‘A winery comes in, a chocolatier comes in, then a little store with country antiques - yeah, it’ll be a little boomtown,’’ DuFord says. ‘‘Look down that river; those aren’t your locals in those boats. Today, I saw several boats worth $100,000. They don’t have a choice but to change.’’

An even bigger boat is coming to Lansing this summer - the steam-powered paddlewheeler Julia Belle Swain out of La Crosse, bringing tourists for an overnight at one of the inns. It’ll also give the locals, or anyone staying in Lansing, the chance to take a four- or five-hour day cruise to or from La Crosse, along one of the most beautiful stretches of the Mississippi, with return via motorcoach.

General manager Tina Keenan, who went to high school in Lansing and still has family there, says she has been trying to add a Lansing excursion to the boat’s schedule for years.

‘‘It’s the most enthusiastic little town we’ve ever come across,’’ she says. ‘‘When we blow our horn, the people come out on their decks and balconies and jump up and down and wave. Their feeling for the boat and the river, I don’t know - it’s a loyalty we truly appreciate.’’

In Lansing, life still revolves around the river. Some want to be on it, some just want to look at it. And no one gets tired of the views.

‘‘I’m still in awe,’’ says Gries, the Chicago artist. ‘‘I can’t get over it. To look out the window and see the bluffs and trees - I don’t even need to be in it, just to be here, just seeing it, is huge.’’

Lots of towns can serve a latte. But few can deliver a setting like Lansing.

BLACK HAWK’S STORY

Lansing’s beloved Black Hawk Bridge, the only span crossing the Mississippi between La Crosse and Prairie du Chien, was named for a Sauk leader who lived in the Sauk village of Saukenuk, at the modern-day town of Rock Island, Ill., but became part of lore in northeast Iowa and southwest Wisconsin.

In 1831, Black Hawk and his band were removed and sent to Iowa. But the women couldn’t dig up the thick prairie sod to plant their corn, and in the spring of 1832, the band returned.

Settlers panicked, and a military force of soldiers and volunteers mobilized to punish the rogue Indians. They fled, pursued by the militia through Wisconsin. On Aug. 2, 1832, at the mouth of the Bad Axe River on the Mississippi, the cannons of the federal steamboat Warrior killed nearly all the remnants of the starving band, including women and children.

The ‘‘battle’’ site now is part of Black Hawk Recreation Area, across the river from Lansing between De Soto and Victory. A plaque there quotes Black Hawk: ‘‘I loved my towns, my cornfields, and the home of my people. I fought for it.’’

IF YOU GO:

ACCOMMODATIONS: The newly restored McGarrity’s Inn on Main Street has three very attractive rooms with kitchenettes, $75-$90, and a one-bedroom suite with a very fancy kitchen, steam shower and whirlpool bath and wrought-iron balcony with bridge view, $150. The suite sleeps five and adjoins another room that sleeps four. Guests have use of a gas grill on a back deck. However, noise from traffic and live music at a neighboring bar can be irritating. 1-866-538-9262, www.mcgarritysinn.com

On the hill, the large 1873 Thornton House has four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and veranda and now rents for $175-$225 for two nights and up to 12 people. However, the new owners plan to close the house temporarily and then rent it as a whole or in separate suites with breakfast included. 1-563-538-4878, www.thorntonhouse.net.

Just south of downtown, with a view of the river, Uncle Charlie’s Cabin has three bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths and a dock, $250-$350 for two nights and up to 10 people. It’s rented by Jay and Jeannine Hisel, owners of Big River Forge, 1-563-9276 or 1-563-538-9285, www.unclecharliescabin.com.

Facing the river near the foot of Main Street, Murphy’s Cove Bed and Bath is a three-bedroom, two-bath home that has a screened porch and rents for $240-$350 for two nights, 1-563-568-6448.

West of Lansing, Red Barn Resort & Campground has many amenities, 1-888-538-4956.

The 1863 Captain’s House B&B, formerly FitzGerald’s Inn, has five rooms, 1-563-538-4872.

DINING: Two supper clubs on Main Street, Clancy’s and Milty’s, serve decent food. For dinner with a view, go across the river to Great River Roadhouse, which serves good pizza, pasta and an excellent selection of beer in a cheerful atmosphere (but don’t expect fresh mushrooms). It’s on Wisconsin 35 just north of De Soto. For coffee, scones and muffins, stop by the Channel Cat on Main Street, which also plans to start serving soup and salads as the Farm Market Cafe.

EVENTS: Aug. 12-14, Fish Days. Nov. 11-13, Fall Birding Festival.

CRUISES: The Mississippi Explorer pontoon boat gives 1 1/2-hour excursions from Lansing at 1 p.m. Sundays, $15, $10 for children 2-11, and also can be chartered. July 30-31, two-hour Black Hawk War cruises of nearby historical sites will include narration by storyteller Duke Addicks, $23-$17. On Aug. 13, cruises will show water lilies and lotus in bloom, and on Nov. 12-13, passengers will have close-up views of tundra swans and other migrating birds. 1-563-586-4444, www.mississippiexplorer.com.

Out of La Crosse, the Julia Belle Swain offers overnight cruises to and from Lansing July 3-4 and 26-27 and Aug. 23-24. Cost of $239 per person includes meals, a stay at one of the town’s inns and sightseeing to Mount Hosmer and such nearby attractions as Effigy Mounds National Monument, McGregor or the antiques shops of Marquette. The one-way cruise is $79, including a continental breakfast, lunch and return by bus. Reserve at 1-800-815-1005, www.juliabelle.com.

MOUNT HOSMER CITY PARK: From the river, drive up Main Street and turn right on Sixth Street. The first overlook has a three-state panoramic view; there’s also a good view from the top, where there’s a playground, picnic tables and a pavilion.

INFORMATION: 1-563-568-2624, www.lansingiowa.com. For a mail subscription to the monthly Tapestry magazine, which includes news and events in Lansing as well as other towns along the Upper Mississippi, plus Decorah and Viroqua, Wis., send $28 to P.O. Box 130, Lansing, IA 52151.