Ghost Towns of Central Iowa

A Ghost Town Tour Through Central Iowa –

The Heart of the Heartland

If you live in Iowa, the “Heartland of America”, you are in the middle of Ghost Town USA! In September 1994, my wife and I took a cold, drizzly ghost town tour south and southeast of Des Moines, between Winterset and Grinnell. Having done some extensive exploration in the Omaha, Nebraska region the year before, we were prepared to find a handful of near ghost towns, and a bunch of empty sites. We weren't ready for the large number of dying, badly faded farm towns that are rapidly approaching ghost town status. If the sampling of locations in the seven counties we explored are any indication of what's happening in rural America, there are thousands of small towns rapidly becoming extinct.

ACKWORTH (Warren Co.)

After a visit to the covered bridges of Madison County, we headed east from Winterset on SH 92. Five miles east of Indianola is the rapidly fading class D community of Ackworth. Here a cluster of neat homes, a "Friends" church, cemetery and post office remain of a town that has decreased from 111 folks in 1970 to only 66 in 1990.

SANDYVILLE (Warren Co.)

On SH 92, five miles east of Ackworth is another small cluster of homes, a repair garage, and an abandoned two-story structure that looks as if it may have been a store at one time. Size-wise, the community is larger than Ackworth, but population-wise it is slightly smaller, with only 59 people living here in 1990.

ATTICA (Marion Co.)

Attica is a little larger than the last two locations, and still appears livelier than its 1980 population of 90 would indicate. Located on SH 5, 11 miles southeast of Knoxville, the tiny town's claim to fame is one of the few drivable covered bridges left in the state. The bridge is located four miles southwest of town, and is still in its original position. The town of Attica is a typical, tiny, tree-shaded rural burg that is nothing more than a dot on the map.

Red Rock Reservoir (Marion Co.)

Red Rock Reservoir is a huge man-made lake that swallowed up the sites of at least four old communities along the Des Moines River. A 1938 road atlas shows towns by the name of FIFIELD, HOWELL, RED ROCK and ROUSSEAU located where the reservoir is now.

Pella (Marion Co.)

With a 1990 population of 9270, Pella is no ghost! The only reason it is mentioned is the restored boyhood home of Wyatt Earp is located in a small park just east of the downtown square. It is an interesting place to visit if you don't mind spending some bucks a shot for touristy glitz. (I kept the cash.)

GRANDVILLE (Mahaska Co.)

About ten miles northeast of Pella on SH 102, we turned north on County Road T-38, passing through Taintor (1980 pop-100). In Taintor the road swings west, and two miles west makes a 90 and swings north again. At this turn is the site of Grandville. Grandville is shown on 1930s era highway maps, but is not on current maps. Nothing remains except scattered farms.

GIBSON (Keokuk Co.)

Gibson is a dwindling small town whose population has steadily dropped. In 1970 it had 80 people, in 1980, 75, and in 1990 only 63. Today (1994) all that remains are about 30 or so neat homes, an elevator, post office, United Presbyterian Church, and a fairly new bank building. It sits about two miles west of SH 21 in the northwest corner of the county.

THORNBURG (Keokuk Co.)

Three miles south of the turnoff to Gibson, a cluster of trees a mile east of the state highway attracted my attention. The map showed Thornburg, and I didn't have it marked, so we thought a surprise was in order.

After passing the modern "Tri-County School", we entered Thornburg (1990 population 91). Thornburg looks like a ghost town is supposed to look like! Half the homes in town are abandoned, and "downtown" consists of five buildings, four of which are unoccupied. On the north side of the street from the east is a single-story brick structure; the tiny, wooden white-painted post office and the boarded-up, brick McIntire Pump & Water building. Across the street is the moldering, red clapboard Thornburg Grocery, and just to the west is another combination brick/wood structure. There are also two churches in town, both of which appeared active.

WHAT CHEER (Keokuk Co.)

On SH 21, four miles south of the Thornburg turnoff, we entered a long main street lined with one to three story brick buildings. What Cheer is an active community with a population of over 740, which has declined somewhat from the 1930 population of 1310. What Cheer is no ghost, but is in the center of what was an active coal mining area. Despite being an active community, about a half of the structures along the main street are unoccupied, or are used for storage. One of its two main sites is a three-story brick opera house, which was built in 1893, and is open for tours. The other is an 1884 two-story brick schoolhouse that houses the historical museum.

DELTA (Keokuk Co.)

Four miles south of What Cheer, SH 21 intersects with SH 92. About a mile south of that intersection is the small town of Delta. Another covered bridge is three miles southeast of the town, but it is well hidden in the trees, and you need local directions to find it, as the signs were not real accurate. It was built in 1869, and is open only for foot traffic.

The town of Delta is a sleepy little backwater burg with a 1990 population of 409. Where they all are I don't know, but the frazzled old downtown core didn't reflect much of a town on the move. The grocery, post office, Floden's Diner (closed) and Last Chance Saloon are the only structures identifiable with signs. There were several others that appeared to be closed but were without signage, so I couldn't tell what they were. It began to rain as we left Delta, so we headed back to SH 92 and turned west towards Oskaloosa.

ROSE HILL (Mahaska Co.)

Despite the rain, I saw the sign for Rose Hill, and again, turned off the highway in search of another adventure. Rose Hill with a 1990 population of 171 is another badly faded farm town that seems so typical of rural central Iowa. More than half the commercial buildings were either converted to houses, or were unoccupied. I saw only a restaurant, feed store and body shop open. The wooden community center had recently burned and was wrapped in fluorescent red nylon netting to keep people out.

TRACY (Marion Co.)

2.3 miles south of SH 92 is the small town of Tracy. Tracy is another typical small rural community. Its 1980 population of 300 is no match for what remains of the town. It has scattered commercial buildings and some 50-75 homes, which are still mostly occupied. Its claim to fame however is the huge, brown-brick, two-story 1914 school standing on a grassy knoll.

HARVEY (Marion Co.)

Just a mile or so west of the southern turnoff for Tracy is a small turnoff marked Harvey. The rain had let up so we decided this would make a nice last stop on our tour. Downtown Harvey with a 1990 population of 235, is just a shadow of what it once was. Now it is just a handful of abandoned buildings with an active post office, a bar called the "Trucker's Inn", and an abandoned school. Harvey has a number of abandoned coal mines in the vicinity, so it appears that its happy days were long ago in the past.

Other spots for further research.

For those of you inclined to research, here are some names of other locations you may want to look into.

Warren Co...Churchville, Medora, New Liberty, Orvilla, Palmyra and Summerset.
Marion Co...Dunreath, Marysville and Morgan Valley.
Mahaska Co...Indianapolis, Lacey, Olivet, Tioga and Union Mills. Tioga may be in Keokuk County, as it appears to have been very close to the county line.
Keokuk Co...Hayesville

As you can see, Ghost Town USA is alive and well in the fertile countryside in the heart of America's Heartland, south-central Iowa.

This was our GHOST TOWN OF THE MONTH for April 2002.

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FIRST POSTED: Apr 01, 2002

LAST UPDATED: Mar 20, 2005

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