Hamburg, IA

Hamburg is the southwesternmost city in Iowa, a Fremont County place of 890 people in the 2020 census between the Nishnabotna and Missouri rivers. The city hugs Missouri to the south and Nebraska to the west, and its borders have a history of river changes and surveying surprises. Early settlers thought they were in Missouri after the Platte Purchase; later, a Missouri River island near town shifted from Nebraska land connection to Missouri ground when the river changed course in 1867, sparking a long border dispute.

ATTRUS Army Corps of Engineers / Public domain

Augustus Borchers laid out Hamburg in 1857 and named it for the German city. The city incorporated in 1867, and railroads arrived through the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph line and the Nebraska City branch of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. Today Vogel Popcorn is headquartered in Hamburg, while Popcorn Days, the Carnegie library, a large park, memorials, and Hamburg Community School keep the town's civic map active. Hamburg is a river-border city with a German name, a popcorn economy, and a past shaped by water moving the state lines around it.