10 SMALLEST Towns in IOWA 

Iowa has some beautiful churches.

Ok, one more thing. I love all the towns, they are all very nicely kept. I also love seeing all the old playground equipment you show in all these towns, takes me back!!

I live in Southern California. These little towns in the video are so peaceful Thank you for your video..

My mom graduated from Leroy Iowa. I will have to show her this video.

I attended school in that old school house in Leroy 28:59 from 1st grade through 6th in the late sixties early seventies. Back then LeRoy had a few businesses like the grocery store/ post office all in one. The owner use to literally change hats when he would go from store clerk to post master. They also had feed stores and repair/ welding shops plus other. The town has remained active by the members of the church where have an annual LeRoy Harvest Festival celebration with a parade and big meal sponsored by the church and more.

I've spent a lot of time in Iowa. I love every inch of it. Thanks for sharing it with us.

The quiet of the small towns in Iowa is a breath of fresh air. Thanks for the great video!

Makes me wish for the peaceful and quiet life.❤

Great video! Especially on beaconsfield! My great grandfather lived in beaconsfield and grew up in Coburg.

I've done a lot of traveling through Iowa. It's a beautiful state, especially when the corn is at its peak. Curious what time of year this video was shot?

Yay! Finally! Thank you so much John

My step fathers family is from Iowa. The family farm is in Waterloo outside of Gilbertville. My brother lives in Cedar Falls.

I went to high school in Blairsburg. At the time, there was a ratty wooden sign that said population 308-still growing. Now, it's down too 172.

I know Hepburn, Iowa, well. I owned a farm a few miles south of Hepburn, on the way to Clarinda. There are several small towns in the Clarinda area that are pretty darned cool, like College Springs. Enjoyed your journey this time, too. Always a pleasure.

I love looking at all these older slower going towns. Very interesting to hear their history.

Did that street sign say cookie monster? I'm enjoying these videos of places I'll probably never see. Thanks for the window on the tiny towns world 😊

Good ole towns, I can see where the population went, 😥 in the grave yards. I enjoyed this venture. 😎

We really enjoyed your visits to Iowa's smallest towns. While in school at Iowa State I helped my Rural Sociology Professor conduct a large research project that took me all over Iowa. Even though I was born, and now live, in Missouri I consider Iowa my adopted State. Go Cyclones! But most of all we enjoyed your Bussards Belly t-shirt! Been there. Keep up your great work.

Whats the difference between incorporated and corporated? I know i live in an unincorporated town in az and ive always wondered? ❤ your vids!!

Our farm was near the little, now dying, of Ruthven Iowa. These towns started going down hill with the end of passenger train service... then as the Baby Boom passed the local schools consolidated, then again... and again.

Thanks for video. Born and raised in Iowa.

Hi john thanks for the tour i enjoyed seeing the places an when you show a old gas station i think about what they were back in the day when open how they looked . Cheers mate🇦🇺

All of the small towns were so clean and well kept. Shows pride in their small burgs. Bigger towns could take a lesson. Beautiful churches, you wonder if folks from other areas come to worship there. Wouldn't be a video without playgrounds and puppy dogs.😊 Enjoyed the journey, stay safe and GOD bless

Pretty cool cruising all the small towns in Iowa, I have been to every town in Iowa on 2 wheels (bicycle or motorcycle). 1588 towns this includes ghost towns and unincorporated towns.

Some of the small towns are well kept and very impressive I loved seeing the old barn. imagine the stories they could tell. Nice Muriel’s in Elliston. What a wonderful video thanks for the ride along stay safe until the next adventure

This is another wonderful video of history. I bet it was a beautiful drive through that part of America. Thanks for what you do with these videos.

I enjoyed the video. I actually grew up in Galt.

Thanks again John really enjoyed your video I live in a small town and consider myself very fortunate . Have you ever considered incorporating a gravel bike into your visits you being a track coach I am a 62 year old gravel bike rider and ride around small towns in south west Missouri it’s a very relaxing thing for me to do have met a lot of wonderful people in my adventures!

I really enjoyed this small towns journey so much!! I had no idea about any of this, so thank you for the historical info and all of it

"You'll be able to see that the town is on a hill in the drone footage"..... LOL!!! Of note is how well those "small towns" maintain a civil standard of upkeep. Great episode. Thanks for sharing. Always enjoy the vintage merri-go-rounds actually moving. One was pretty old. "I died once when I was 5, but my mom made me get up and walk it off". Better times, stronger people.....

Great video, Coach Wise!!

another cool production❤

very awesome. great video, sir.

Great video! Ellston looks well kept and clean. Interesting history 😊

Some amazing small town!! I love your odd ball videos 😂!!

Interesting trip, I noticed no wind generation, maybe too flat. Good to see the wheels of death & the pups. Be safe my friend

All of them were clean and seemed to be well taken care of. As always, another great video!👍

I love ghost towns and your amazing videos!!

Makes me want to travel. Thank you!

Great video! I knew HyVee started in Iowa but didn't realize it was on a town so small. Thanks for sharing

Well, first time ever, have been shown a railroad diesel switcher at a grain elevator in an out of the way place. Green liveried 6974 at the Farmers Coop elevator, Yetter, IA. Have travelled from the UK just to see such on many occasions, and this one is new to me. The number of times I have wished that the blogger would show me the rail siding, to see whether there is switcher there !! Thanks a lot, don't forget us crazy railfans in the future. Will have to try to find the identity and history of 6974 now.

I will never see these places myself. So thanks for showing them off. Have a great weekend

Really nice video. I like how you covered 13 different small towns, quite well too. Yard work/trees today (before hard winter). Be good, be safe !!

Your "after shots" are the best. Dogs and carousels ❤

Love small quite towns..thanks

I've enjoyed your trips to the small towns. Growing up in a small town in North Dakota where my grandparents homesteaded at the turn of the 20th century, I learned how the area developed. You might wonder why people settled along the railroads. There are a few reasons, the homestead act, the soil suited to agriculture, the immigration from Europe at the time, etc. Your maps show that the counties were laid out in near perfect rectangular layout. So, why did the railroads develop in such areas, and why did the immigrants settle along the railroad lines. The settlers were primarily immigrants, some with agricultural background who were looking for land to farm, others with shopping keeping or professional experience that these farmers would need to buy the clothes, food, and other necessities and services they would need. It was not unlike the development of communities around mines in other areas of the country. The government and the homesteading act provided the land. Railroads came because they were given land on either side of the tracts, every ten miles of so, so it could be sold to the immigrants to develop a townsite. The farmers needed places to market their grain and the grain elevators to buy it, since the mills were located in cities further east, the case of North Dakota, in Minneapolis. So why every ten miles or so? That was the distance a team of horses pulling a grain wagon could travel forth and back from the grain elevator. As time passed, some immigrants couldn't make a go it, so they sold their land to adjacent farmers who could, after their homestead obligations were fulfilled. As farms and farming equipment grew in size to handle more farmland, farmers income improved so they afford the new equipment. With trucks replacing the horses and wagons they could reach the grain elevators over a longer distance and the small towns in between the new terminals shrunk in size while the more distant towns with larger elevators grew in size. This has been the way the plains states have developed. The little towns survive because the survivors there can afford to live there, possibly because they sold their land, and the location has become endeared to them.

My uncle, who lives in Iowa, was a regional manager for Hy-Vee for a number of years. He's retired now though. I remember being quite impressed when it came to Missouri as well. Interesting to see where it started off.

My favorite is Bankston. The church is gorgeous, and the playground looks nice. Everything is neat. They all looked cared for. Nice old buildings. Great video. Thanks.

Coach,good job as usual.These small towns have a surreal vibe in their quiet clean setting. Just a thought, when those playground rides start moving by themselves,it might be time to get to a slow sprint on out of there, just saying. Thanks for the research and effort put forth.

Everything did seem better in Yetter! Just sayin- I’m really enjoying your videos Wiseguy, keep them coming.

You have captured the look of the small Iowa town very well. Or anyhow, how I knew them before moving away from the tall corn state. Most have been kept up fairly well. I believe many of the residents are either "lifers" or at least have a good amount of years involved to where there is much pride. There are some that look like the junkyard from Hades, but those are an exception. The joy of visiting these little bergs is the occasional diamond you fond in the rough. The people are usually friendly and a joy to chat with. And little snips of history is alive in these remote Uowa areas. I really enjoyed your tour of small town Iowa. I have been removed from Iowa for over thirty years now, but I guess my heart never left! Thank you again for a wonderful trip!

Glad to see you getting up North. I first watched one of your videos about ghost towns in Texas, since I live in that state. But I was born in Minnesota (New Ulm), and was hoping you'd take a trip up North. Searles was a tiny, nearby town when I was a kid there in the '60s, with one gas station, one bar/town store combo, a Cathodic church/school, & a post office run out of somebody's home. Even THAT sounds huge next to these in Iowa. 🙂

Ya know, I only see those "wheels of death" mostly in old, small places. Well, except for one near the Space Needle in Seattle. That thing was fling off kids left and right like a dervish the day I was there.

Ok, gotta admit, Ellston was the highlight. Looks like a nice little town to retire to. I wonder, what do small towns like these do in the winters when the streets need to be plowed? Great video!

I was expecting to see Mederville (with maybe 10 people if that) but when I didn't, I went looking and it is unincorporated. But if you ever decide to do the small uninc's check it out because it's got a lot of history.

Have you done a video on Garden Grove Iowa and the Mormon Trail? Or maybe explored part of the trail?

The large red brick church which is almost a cathedral in Bankston makes absolutely no sense for a very small town with only a handful of people in its entire recorded census unless they have a long history of migrant workers from south of the US border. Nice long vlog, John.

Would you ever consider moving to any of the small towns you show us in all these series?

I can’t say my favorite town - it keeps getting autocorrected. I love when people leave signs to share history. The churches were beautiful. Lovely to see on a Sunday morning.

Hi John, you should go explore Wiley street in greenwood Indiana! That’s mine! It’s amazing houses

Very nice video. My three decades working for a regional electric power cooperative in Iowa put me at or working with power lines near around 2/3 of those small towns. It brought back memories.

Funny, it wasn't a bridge of Madison County. Great video, very interesting. I wonder what people do in those small towns and where they work? I would think it would be very boring living there.

I hope you got to take side trips to the American Pickers shop and the farmhouse in the "American Gothic" painting.

I am from Iowa and have heard of some of these small towns.

I kinda liked Bankston a lot. Church was specular. Although the fact several of them had parks and play grounds makes them fun to see. 11 people...Leroy. I'll bet the city council meeting draw the whole town

In Bankstown the Catholic church was unlocked. I've been told the reason for that is a place of quiet to work thur their problems. In yetter I wonder if the metal tower and tanks is a grain dryer?

Off to Dublin Georgia next year to see family. What can I look forward too?. Anthony from England

Which vid showed that table and chair out in the middle of nowhere in Kansas? And it was a geocache place. I want to share that vid with a few people and i cant find it. Please and thank you!

I was wondering if I’d recognize a town of an ancestor but I didn’t.

You need to go to New Home Texas in 1973 it was like 252 population . I was raised there now I live in Wolfforth.

What about Sabula? It’s a small town on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River.

Lived in Iowa for my entire life, never heard of any of these towns.

Well you didn't find Sesame Street but you did find Cookie Monster!

ON THE MENTION OF ANIMAL TRAILS BECOMING ROADWAYS, IN MY VERY YOUNG DAYS , WAS GOING BEHIND OUR BARN, AND FOLLOWING OUR COWPATHS TO THE FAR REACHES OF OUR PASTURE AREAS! AS I MADE THESE EXCURSIONS WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE, IT WAS QUITE WORRISOME TO MY PARENTS! WITH A CAR, TANK OF GAS, AND A NICE DAY I STILL WANDER ABOUT, MUCH AS POSSIBLE!!

I often wonder who owns these seemingly abandoned properties now?

I had a girlfriend who had Family in Delhi Iowa in the 90's. The population back then was only 90. Now its over 400. Still very small but not even close to your list.

How far do people have to drive to go shopping for grocery's ( roughly) ? I'm in Australia in The Whitsundays Qld. Most to drive here in this area its about 100/150km round trip, if your in a small locality( town)

Cookie Monster Place? That's random. 😉

Town was so small, sign at the edge of town said "Welcome, come back again", on the same post! 🙃🤡

I love this small towns, but where do the people go shopping, banking? Is there good phone service, internet?

Medervill ia. Have you done that?

Any of these towns you strongly recommend or at least moderately recommend I visit?

Prescott is incorporated. Less than 200 pop.

I notice a lot of these towns are near the state's southern border

Iowa has turned into a immigrant state. The immigrant population has destroyed my new neighborhood and has really made this state a horrible place to live.