Defiance, IA

Defiance is a city in Shelby County, Iowa, United States, along the West Branch of the West Nishnabotna River. The 2020 census counted 245 residents. Defiance had its start in 1882 by the building of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad through that territory. The district serves the towns of Harlan, Defiance, Earling, Panama, Portsmouth and Westphalia, the unincorporated communities of Jacksonville and Corley, and the surrounding rural areas. A newcomer can read Defiance through the overlap of its older landmarks, surrounding geography, and current places. For a newcomer, Defiance comes into focus through those concrete links among its past, landscape, and current routines.