The Walnut post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Walnut Creek Station (1870), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
2020 census: 747151 years
Founding year: the first Walnut post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Walnut’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Walnut yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Walnut is a city in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The population was 747 at the time of the 2020 census. Walnut is located on Interstate 80 and is famous for its many antique stores. In recent years Walnut has become a regional center of wind turbine electrical generation.
Its first post office opened in 1875. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 785 to 747 (-5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Walnut, 1883–1907
Passages that mention Walnut, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Biographical history of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies ... history of Iowa, with ... biographies of the governors ... and engravings of prominent citizens of Potta1891 · page 702Read the page →
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In 1875 Mr. Henry came to Walnut and engaged in the grain and lumber trade and did a good business until 1875, when he went to Chicago and built a large elevator and carried on extensive grain operations, in connection with his brother William C, under the firm name of Henry Brothers. In November, 1880. be sold out this business
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History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing a history from the earliest settlement to the present time ... biographical sketches1883 · page 142Read the page →
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there in Maj', 18G-t. He removed from there to Pottawattamie County in March, 1873, when he again engagetl in farming, three and a half miles from Walnut, dividing his time between the farm and a limited law practice in Walnut and before country Justices in Cass, Shelby and Pottawattamie Counties. On the 4th of last March, he rented his farm, bought
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History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing a history from the earliest settlement to the present time ... biographical sketches1883 · page 248Read the page →
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ship 77. Range 38. be and the same is hereby organized into a civil township, to be known as the township of Layton. " The first election was ordered held in the town of Walnut, on October 14. 1873. Layton Township was the last portion of Pottawattamie County to attract the land agent and the settler. Why this was the case seems
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History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, from the earliest historic times to 19071907 · page 213Read the page →
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The first election was held in the town of Walnut on October 14, 1873. Layton township was the last in the county to attract the land agent and settler. The reason probably was owing to the distance from market. With the construction of the railroad the conditions were changed and speedily brought this great body of land into notice.
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
Walnut, 1870 to 1934
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
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