Alton, IA

At the 2020 census, Alton was a Sioux County city of 1,248 people along the Floyd River. The place began as East Orange in 1875, when the railroad reached this stretch of northwest Iowa; in 1882, the name changed to Alton. That sequence is still the town's basic story: a river crossing, a rail connection, and a name that arrived after the settlement had already started. The Floyd River keeps the community tied to the wider watershed, while the straight roads and farm fields give the city its Sioux County scale.

ATTRMark Evans / CC BY 2.0

Alton now sits in the MOC-Floyd Valley Community School District, formed in 1994 when the Maurice-Orange City and Floyd Valley districts merged. The old railroad logic has softened, but the town remains a service stop for the surrounding farm country, with the river running alongside the grid. The name East Orange survives in school history and local memory, while Alton is the name on the signs and the main street. It is a small Iowa city whose map still makes the most sense when you picture the railroad arriving first.