Ghost Town Discovery

I was cruising Facebook the other day and I came across a post about an Iowa ghost town called "White Pigeon", a town which used to be in Keokuk County. As I read about it, I realized I may have been by the area doing Trans Iowa recon, or maybe it was on a route I came up with. 

Well, as it turns out, Trans Iowa v14 went right by the spot where this ghost town used to be! I don't know about anyone else, but I was excited to learn about this. 

As is the case for me involving Trans Iowas, I recall this road well. The situation was from the last set of cues for the route, and I was trying to find a way back toward Grinnell without adding a ton of extra miles. 

Keeping in mind that this route did not come together until very late into the process, I was also under a lot of self-inflicted pressure to find roads which would not only work, but be something of interest. I guess I stumbled onto something I had no idea of at the time! Had I known about this, I surely would have made a big deal about the route going by a ghost town. 

So, here's a bit of history gleaned from The 29th State page on Facebook. White Pigeon was founded before the Civil War and grew to a decent size with several businesses and churches in its day. However; the railroad bypassed the site of the town, which in the 19th Century was a death sentence for any village. 

White Pigeon hung on for many years though, and it was only after the last business in town burned to the ground around 1930 that it disappeared from the landscape. The only thing remaining is the cemetery which is on the West side of the road from the original town plat. 

From my viewpoint at the time, the gravel road going North from our final checkpoint in Webster, Iowa, was an interesting road because it had a few turns in it. Otherwise I may have chosen another route. Somewhere between mile 2,4 on the cues and mile 5.7 on the cue sheet you would have ridden by the cemetery and the old town site would have been on your right side. 

From the 1895 Atlas of Keokuk County, Iowa by H.G. Bishop

If I'm not mistaken, this road also bears right North of the old site of White Pigeon and turns into a pretty cool Level B Road. That "T"s into H Avenue and the route went North from there. 

I also may have utilized that Level B Road in another Trans Iowa, but I don't think we went South by White Pigeon in that one. 

Anyway, that was a fun discovery, and I am proud now to know I routed Trans Iowa by a legit ghost town. 

I'm also sure we went by others, and some villages we went through maybe will become ghost towns in the future.  

This is partially why I love riding rural areas. I like history, and finding out about the past is good because sometimes there are lessons we can learn from. You never know what you'll find in Iowa, that's for certain, and I'm sure other areas are similarly graced with nuggets of history just waiting for you to discover by bicycle.