Founding year: the first Missouri Valley post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1871.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Missouri Valley’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Missouri Valley is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #98 of 140 in Iowa. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Missouri Valley’s overall grade.
Iowa towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Iowa town has 9.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Missouri Valley’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (17% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.3 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1871 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Missouri Valley’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Originally, Missouri Valley was known as St. John's (Findley or Old St. Johns), and established in 1856. This settlement was founded at the intersection of the Chicago & Northwestern, Sioux City & Pacific, and the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley lines. Following the collapse of wildcat banks in 1858 and the near completion of the railroad, the town was moved 2 miles from its original location and renamed "New St. Johns". The town was formally renamed a second time soon after, this time being named after the valley of the Missouri River.
Peaked at 4,230 in 1930; 2,678 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Missouri Valley’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Missouri Valley, 1888–1891
Passages that mention Missouri Valley, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county ... together with sketches of its pioneers ..1888 · page 21Read the page →
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ing point the place where the depot is located at the town of Dunlap in this county, and have measurement made from there to the place where the railroad depot is located at the town of Missouri Valley, there is only lacking the small number of six feet of being as many feet fall as there is in the distance from the depot building at Sioux City to the depot at Missouri Valley. From the depot at Dunlap to the depot at Missouri Valley, a distance by rail of twenty-six miles, there is
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent1891 · page 224Read the page →
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It is the junction point where the Sioux City & Pacific railroad leaves the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley line. It is six miles to the west of the city of Missouri Valley. It seems to be the odds and ends left from the defunct villages of Cincinnatti and Parrish City — this being the rail¬ way point which overthrew their exist¬
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent1891 · page 544Read the page →
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August, 18S5, he took charge of the Con¬ solidated freight offices of the Sioux City & Pacific and Chicago & Northwestern railroads, at Missouri Valley, and for three years acted as joint agent for both roads, making twenty-one years of railroad ser¬ vice. At the time of entering the employ of the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad, he
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county ... together with sketches of its pioneers ..1888 · page 22Read the page →
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Though digressing from the subject, I will take the liberty to state that the depot building at Missouri Valley is 418 feet higher than the Chicago & Northwestern railroad bridge, where the same spans the Mississippi river at Clinton, and that the surface of the railroad at Woodbine in this county is one foot higher than the track at New Jeiferson in Greene county.
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.
Timeline
Missouri Valley, 1867 to 1995
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Missouri Valley. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1970Missouri Valley sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Missouri Valley.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewPlans of Monticello, Manchester, Missouri Valley, Mount Ayr and Anamosa. (0018.077), 1875
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Missouri Valley’s page.
The Missouri Valley post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1871.
How does Missouri Valley rank for history?
Missouri Valley is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #98 of 140 in Iowa. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Missouri Valley?
57% of Missouri Valley’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.3 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1938.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1910
