Angus

Overview

The coal town that was carted away

Angus began in the 1870s as Coaltown, a mining camp on the Des Moines Valley Railroad in the northwest corner of Boone County, on the Greene County line. A post office opened in 1879, and in 1881 the town was renamed for a railroad official. The first mine was sunk by John F. Dunscombe of Fort Dodge, who sold out to the Climax Coal Company, a firm in which the railroad builder James J. Hill had an interest. Climax worked three big shafts, one of which hoisted eighty cars of coal in a day, and eight more companies followed: the Keystone, Standard, Moingona, Panic, Milwaukee, Dalbey, Ohio and Armstrong. The seam was three to five feet thick and the coal was good.

By 1885 Angus was the largest coal mining town in Iowa. A Des Moines newspaper article reprinted in the 1914 county history puts its peak at something over 5,000 people; the same history elsewhere gives 3,600 for 1886 and 3,500 at its height, and other sources give 3,000 to 5,000. Miners came from across the country and from overseas. The town had a bank, churches in Swedish, Welsh and English, newspapers named the Tenderfoot and the Black Diamond, and, as a former resident tells it, saloons built on the county line so a man in trouble could step across out of the sheriff's reach. A strike from September 1884 to January 1885 ended with strikers burning out a lodging house of strikebreakers at Snake Creek and the militia arriving from Des Moines.

The coal ran out faster than anyone predicted. Several big mines had closed by 1887, half the people were gone within five years of the strike, and the bank failed in 1893. Houses were sold by the dozen for their lumber and moved on rollers or flatcars to Perry, Rippey, Dawson, Berkley and the mining camps around Des Moines, and the lots went back to farmland. The town gave up its incorporation around 1910, when it had 248 people. It still had a post office, two stores, a grain elevator, two churches and a school when the county historian visited in May 1914. The population was 150 in 1940, the post office closed in the 1950s, and the last store, Simpson's, closed around 1962.

Timeline

Coaltown to cornfield

1. 1870sThe Des Moines Valley Railroad builds north from Des Moines, and a coal camp called Coaltown grows up on its line in Union Township.
2. 1879A post office opens at Coaltown.
3. 1881Coaltown is renamed Angus, for a railroad official.
4. Early 1880sJohn F. Dunscombe of Fort Dodge sinks the first mine and sells to the Climax Coal Company, in which James J. Hill has an interest. Nine companies end up working the field.
5. Sep 1884 – Jan 1885Miners backed by the Knights of Labor strike for a raise. When the operators land strikebreakers at Snake Creek, three miles west, the strikers burn their lodging house and drive them out; two militia companies arrive from Des Moines.
6. 1885Angus is the largest coal mining town in Iowa, with more than 5,000 people at its peak by one account.
7. May 1886The new Methodist Episcopal church is burned, the county history says by the saloon crowd.
8. 1887Several of the big mines have closed. The Black Diamond, the last of the boom newspapers, suspends in the summer.
9. 1892A short revival of mining; the Angus News lasts less than a year.
10. Aug 7, 1893The town's private bank fails in the panic; depositors get back about 35 cents on the dollar.
11. 1900Population 333.
12. 1910Population 248. The town gives up its incorporation; by now most of its houses have been sold and moved to Perry, Rippey, Dawson and Berkley.
13. May 1914A visit for the county history finds a post office, two stores, a grain elevator, two churches and a schoolhouse among scattered buildings.
14. 1940Population 150.
15. 1950sThe post office closes.
16. About 1962Simpson's Store, the last store, closes.

On the ground

A few homes on Angus Avenue

Already in 1914 the county history described Angus as a house or two here and there, cut off from one another by plowed land, with barbed wire fences where streets had been, and heaps of mine machinery, old boilers, fenced pit holes and slack dumps. An undated description lists a few houses, coal mine tailings, a grain elevator, foundations and a cemetery, and puts the population at about ten. The current aerial imagery shows a short row of houses and trees along Angus Avenue south of 325th Street, a larger cluster of buildings at its south end, and grain bins where IA 144 bends at the corner, all surrounded by fields. We found no dated report of what stands today.

The historic maps show the town's outline. The 1950 Perry sheet still prints Angus over a cluster of buildings beside the Minneapolis and St. Louis line, with an inactive mine just to the northeast, an inactive strip mine on the Raccoon River bluffs to the west, the Pleasant Hill school to the southeast and the Bower Cemetery to the southwest, near the meeting of Greene, Boone and Dallas counties. The 1954 sheet shows Angus with Perry, Rippey and Dawson, the towns that took its houses, and the 1993 sheet marks the old railroad grade running southeast toward Perry.

• A few houses along Angus Avenue
• Grain bins at the corner of 325th Street and IA 144
• Coal mine tailings and foundations, per an undated report
• The old railroad grade toward Perry

Historic maps

Angus on USGS maps, 1950–1993

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19501:62,50019541:250,00019931:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Angus is about four miles northwest of Perry. From Perry, IA 144 runs north and west to the townsite; from Des Moines, IA 141 and US 169 lead there. Both routes end on Angus Avenue.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Have photos of Angus?

We haven’t added photographs of Angus yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to Angus?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

Coal mining

More coal mining ghost towns

The nearest, in other states.

Guide

Bourbonais

41.34, -89.64

Bureau County, Illinois

A coal village laid out in 1864 beside the Burlington railroad, with one store and a post office called Lovejoy. The mines closed in 1881, and the…

Private farm, per a 2021 visitCoal mining

Guide

Cardiff

41.05, -88.29

Livingston County, Illinois

A coal town that sprang up on the prairie in 1899, held more than 2,000 people by 1903 and was carted away after its mine closed in 1912. Two waste…

Gone; marker at the crossroadsCoal mining

All 22 coal mining ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Angus

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Iowa index.

• Coal Valley14.8 mi NE · Boone
• Zook Spur17.8 mi E · Dallas
• Morrisburg21.3 mi SW · Guthrie
• Jordan22.3 mi NE · Boone
• Herrold24.4 mi SE · Polk
• Zenorsville27.4 mi NE · Boone
• Mackey28.4 mi NE · Boone
• Iowa Center38.8 mi E · Story

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Nathan E. Goldthwait, History of Boone County, Iowa, vol. 1 (1914), pp. 335–345, Internet Archive: Union Township's railroads, the reprinted Register and Leader article "The Rise and Fall of Angus" (Coaltown, the renaming, the 1885 peak of over 5,000, Dunscombe and Climax, the nine companies, the M. & St. L., the newspapers, the 1884–1885 strike, the 1886 church fire, the 1887 decline, 1892, the 1893 bank failure, the houses moved away), and the May 1914 visit (population 3,600 in 1886 and 3,500 at its height, 333 in 1900, 248 in 1910, what still stood).
2. Wikipedia, "Angus, Iowa", retrieved October 2026: Coaltown in the 1870s, the 1879 post office, the 1881 renaming, population 150 in 1940, the post office closing in the 1950s, coordinates.
3. Boone County IAGenWeb, "Towns and Abandoned Towns / Post Offices", read October 2026: Coaltown, the largest coal town in Iowa in 1885, over 5,000 people, incorporation given up in 1910, buildings moved to neighboring towns.
4. ghosttowns.com, "Angus", read October 2026: fact sheet (road, climate, best time, remains, about ten residents, the cemetery), 3,000 to 5,000 people, the county-line saloons, Simpson's Store to about 1962, the curve warning. Undated.
5. Maps: USGS The National Map. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Perry 1950, 1:62,500; Omaha 1954, 1:250,000; Guthrie Center 1993, 1:100,000.