[3] Mason City is known for its musical heritage, high concentrations of renowned Prairie School style architecture, and a close connection with nearby Clear Lake.

The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties.

Local institutions of higher education include North Iowa Area Community College.

[9][10] Mason City has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb), bordering closely on the hot-summer variant.

The new center will help MercyOne to increase the number of behavioral health-care services it can offer to those in the community it serves who are struggling with mental illness and substance abuse issues.

[17] Other major employers include door manufacturers Curries (part of Assa Abloy)[18] and Graham (part of Masonite International),[19] Woodhardbor Cabinetry Manufacturers, Principal Financial, Cargill Kitchen Solutions and the Kraft Foods plant that produces the nation's entire supply of refrigerated ready-to-eat Jell-O pudding snacks.

In November 2007, Reyes Holding / Martin-Brower opened a distribution facility serving McDonald's in 5 states.

[20] In March 2016, North Carolina–based company Prestage Farms proposed to build a $240 million pork processing plant or slaughterhouse in Mason City,[21] employing about 1,800 people.

In May, the Mason City Council cast a tie vote rejecting the proposed project.

[22] Plant opponents raised environmental issues and expressed concern about possible harm to property values.

[25] In late May or early June Mason City holds an annual celebration of its musical heritage called The North Iowa Band Festival.

The Rock Crest-Rock Glen Historic District is the largest concentration of any city in Iowa.

Stockman House (1908) and the Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank Buildings (1909–1910) were both designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

[29] Both the Park Inn Hotel and Stockman House suffered from neglect and unsympathetic alterations before they were saved by community organizations.

In 1989, the Stockman House was moved four blocks to prevent its demolition; it was subsequently restored and opened to the public by the River City Society for Historic Preservation.

[citation needed] In addition to Prairie Style architecture, Mason City is home to extensive Victorian, Craftsman, and Bungalow style homes, as well as historic commercial structures, dates from between 1892 and 1940, including the Brick and Tile Building at the intersection of State and Delaware Streets.

The Mason City Public Library was designed by Chicago architects Holabird and Root in 1939.

[34] The Len Jus Building on North Federal Avenue has an extremely rare sheet-metal facade, it had been placed on the Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance's Most Endangered list because of its poor repair and indifferent ownership,[35][36] but is now being rehabilitated by the new owner.

[38] Mason City has some history of minor league and amateur sports teams despite its relatively small size.

The North Iowa Outlaws junior hockey team previously played in the NAHL from 2005 until 2010, when they relocated to Onalaska, Wisconsin, to become the Coulee Region Chill.

The North Iowa Huskies played in the United States Hockey League from 1983 to 1999 and then moved to Cedar Rapids.

[40] The Mason City Bats of the short-lived Great Central League played baseball here in 1994.

In the 1989 movie UHF the character Stanley Spadowski (played by Michael Richards) is seen wearing a Mason City t-shirt.

The Canadian Pacific track is part of its US subsidiary the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (former I&M Rail Link and Milwaukee Road trackage.

The Union Pacific's track was inherited from the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company when it bought it in the 1990s.

It is the airport from which early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) took off on the night of February 3, 1959, after a concert at the Surf Ballroom in nearby Clear Lake, Iowa, en route to Fargo, N.D.

The plane crashed a few miles west of the airport in an historic event later referred to as the Day the Music Died.