There are 99 counties in the Corn State. But why 99 and not a nice even 100? And why, when you look at a map of the counties, is there one county (Kossuth) that looks twice as big as its neighbors?
You might be intrigued to find out that there were originally 100 counties in Iowa, but one was removed and has nearly vanished from memory.
The name of that "lost" Iowa county was Bancroft, and it existed for four years from 1851 to 1855 before merging with Kossuth County as a result of a petition led by nearby Algona City leaders. The petition was accepted and the county was rescinded.
That wasn’t the last word, however. In the 1870s, several Civil War veterans came to settle the area. They attempted to reform the county of Bancroft with a different name - Crocker - in honor of Civil War General Marcellus Crocker. Once more, residents of Algona pushed back and took the case to the Supreme Court, which rejected the new county proposal.
Interestingly, if the original name of Bancroft were used (in honor of George Bancroft, pictured here), the reestablishment of the county would have been upheld.
You might be wondering why Algona residents pushed to remove Bancroft County. The reason for their vehement petition was because the land was mostly swampy wetland, making it unfarmable and even largely uninhabitable. Thus, it did not need a separate county government.
However, if you were to drive through the old Bancroft County (encompassed by the northern third of what is now Kossuth County) now, you'll realize that something has definitely changed. There's almost no swampy wetland in sight; instead, the area is now fertile farm ground with multiple towns.
Ironically, one of these towns is named Bancroft, Iowa. That change occurred after the county disputes when land speculators purchased the swampland and drained huge sections with large wooden steam-driven dredges.
The one spot that was unable to be drained was Union Slough, so it was made into a National Wildlife Refuge. Visiting this slough is a great way to get an idea of what the majority of this part of the country used to be like; you can even see rare birds inhabiting this unique ecosystem, such as Trumpeter Swans and Bobolinks.
Is that the end of the story for Iowa's lost county? Who knows, maybe one day Iowa will again have 100 counties. While that doesn’t seem likely, it certainly would have a nice ring to it. Want to learn more about this fascinating history? There is a museum in Bancroft that chronicles even more details about the history of this area.
