Holiday Lake, IA

Holiday Lake is a census-designated place in Brooklyn Township, Poweshiek County, Iowa, with 473 residents in the 2020 census. The community sits eight miles north of Brooklyn and circles the lake that gives it its name. Instead of a conventional main street, its map is made from shoreline roads, wooded lots, camps, and homes facing the water. The surrounding country is rolling central Iowa farmland, so the lake’s coves and tree cover stand out against the open fields.

ATTRMostly Iowa Edits / CC BY-SA 4.0

The lake is also the community’s organizing address. A Rural Improvement Zone committee formed in 2010 to help manage lake maintenance and shared local concerns, giving the settlement a bit of civic structure beyond its residential roads. Boating, fishing, seasonal gatherings, and nearby Brooklyn’s schools and services shape day-to-day life. Holiday Lake is a small Poweshiek County place built around water, where a recreation community and the rural Iowa landscape meet. In summer, the shoreline gives the place its rhythm, while winter leaves the same roads folded into a slower farm-country setting.