Lamoni, IA

Lamoni is a southwest Iowa city with Graceland University at its center. The college was established in 1895 by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now Community of Christ, after local church members helped donate the first campus land. Its first classes met downtown before the administration building opened, and the college became a four-year school in 1960 and a university in 2000. That history still puts the university at the center of Lamoni’s local story. The city also sits along U.S. 69 in Decatur County, near the route taken by Latter-day Saint migrants crossing Iowa in 1846, with nearby Garden Grove marking that older travel story.