Keota, IA

Keota is a city that reaches across Keokuk and Washington counties in Iowa, where the 2020 census counted 897 residents. The city incorporated on September 26, 1873, after its post office opened in March 1872. The name has two local explanations: one tradition connects it to an Indigenous word meaning “gone to visit” or “the fire is gone out,” while another says Reverend D. V. Smock suggested Keoton from the first and last letters of Keokuk and Washington.

ATTRFarragutful / CC BY-SA 4.0

Railroad life shaped the early town. Keota’s depot once stood in the middle of South Fulton Street, and eight trains a day passed through in 1887. The Eagle Glass Works opened in 1879, the Keota Eagle newspaper began in 1876, and Keota Community School District still serves kindergarten through twelfth grade. A fire damaged five East Broadway buildings on December 4, 2010, while an EF4 tornado hit farms northwest of town in 2023. Keota’s map holds a railroad street, a school eagle, a historic downtown, and a name with more than one explanation.