As I've said before, I'm proud to be a life-long Iowan, but some times I'm left scratching my head. Especially when I try to understand the logic behind the 99 county names and county seats.

Some of the Ones They Got Right …

Audubon, Boone, Cherokee, Clinton, Dubuque, Muscatine, Sac (Sac City), & Washington all are the county seat for the same named county. These all make sense.

Some of the Ones They Got Right, Kind Of…

There is Marshall County and Marshalltown, Grundy County and Grundy Center, Guthrie County and Guthrie Center, and Ida County and Ida Grove. The logic, although not perfect, is not hard to follow.

From the “Close But No Cigar” Category…

The city of Fayette is in Fayette County, but West Union serves as that county seat. The city of Floyd lost out to Charles City as the county seat for Floyd County.

From the “Was A Map Involve Map” Category…

The eastern border city of Burlington is the county seat for Des Moines County, but the city of Des Moines is the county seat for Polk County in the center of the state. Poor Polk City who was looked over for the county seat in favor of the trendy state capital.

The northwest town of Sibley serves as the county seat for Osceola County, but the southern city of Ocseola is the county seat for Clarke County.

Why in the world is Fort Dodge the county seat for Webster County. but Webster City is the county seat for the bordering county of Hamilton. Is this a case of name envy?

In a case of monkey see, monkey do, Iowa City is the county seat for Johnson County, and its neighboring county is Iowa County where Marengo gets the honor of being the county seat.

The northeast Iowa city of Greene took it in the chops twice. The city of Greene is located in Butler County, where Allison stole the county seat title, but they also named the city of Jefferson as the county seat of Greene County in the center of the state. I guess it's a case of 'we like your name, just not you.'

I wonder if there is any concern for Winnebago County citizens that their county seat of Forest City is located in Winnebago AND Hancock County.

Is the same true for the city Adair who was looked over for the county seat for Adair County. It must have upset them as a portion of the city now resides in neighboring Guthrie County.

How about this one? Sigourney is the county seat for Keokuk County, but the city Keokuk has to share the county seat for Lee County with Fort Madison. Yes, there are two county seats in Lee County, but that’s a whole other post to try and figure that one out.

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