Black Hawk County developed on rich agricultural land, with seventy-nine percent under cultivation, and is crossed by the Cedar and Wapsipinicon rivers. Named for a Sac leader, the area was used by several Indian tribes, including the Sac, Mesquakie (Fox), and Winnebago, who hunted and held councils there, especially at Turkey Foot Forks, where the Cedar, the West Fork, and the Shell Rock meet. In the early days of American ownership, government explorers Lieutenant Zebulon Pike and Captain Nathan Boone traveled through the area. The first permanent settlers arrived in 1845, drawn by fertile prairie, streams, and woodlands, and settled at Sturgis Falls, later Cedar Falls, at Turkey Foot Forks, and at Prairie Rapids Crossing, later Waterloo. Black Hawk County became a center for agriculture-related industry, especially farm machinery manufacture and meat packing. In 1910, the National Dairy Cattle Congress opened in Waterloo and grew into a major annual exposition of agricultural progress, farm machinery, and entertainment. A state normal school founded in 1876 at Cedar Falls in a former Civil War soldiers' orphans' home later expanded, through several name changes, into the University of Northern Iowa. Peter Melendy, who came to Cedar Falls in 1859, was among those who helped lead UNI to prominence in American education. Notable people from Black Hawk County include Lou Henry Hoover, Carl L. Becker, Horace Boies, Bess Streeter Aldrich, and William Galloway.