The story
Read it all →How Milo came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Milo.
Milo had its start in the year 1878 by the building of the railroad through Belmont Township.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Milo
Milo’s post office opened in 1879, and 44% of its homes were built before 1940
Its Register listing is the Octagon Barn, Otter Township. Below: old-book passages.
1879first post office
1on the National Register
44%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
How Milo began
When was Milo founded?
1879
The Milo post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name.
2020 census: 778147 years
Founding year: the first Milo post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Milo’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Milo’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Milo’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Milo in 1879
Passages that mention Milo, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Warren County, Iowa1879 · page 334Read the page →
Read the text
Indianola and Chariton railway branch curves into this township for a short distance. There are no villages in the township. In an early day Hammondsburg, in this township, bid fair to be a prosperous town, but when the railroad was built and Milo located, a large part of Hammondsburg was moved to the Milo site. A small portion of Milo is in Otter, so that the people of this township have the advantages of the town of Alilo. The northwest corner of Otter is within a mile of Indianola, and Ackwoi'lh station is within two miles of the township, thus transportation facilities for the people'of this region are fairly
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Milo, decade by decade
Today2 recent
2009
2004On the National Register
1 historic place in Milo
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1986
Octagon Barn, Otter Township
Buildings
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Places that used to be
Places now gone
Milo’s post office has been open since 1879.
Gone or out of use
Milolocale
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Milo’s history
What year was Milo founded?
The Milo post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Milo?
One place: the Octagon Barn, Otter Township (listed 1986).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.