Conover

Overview

Two hundred buildings in a cow pasture

Conover was a railroad bet. In September 1864, when word came that the railroad would pass through a pasture in Calmar Township, the land was platted into town lots within two weeks. The rails arrived in 1865 by most accounts. A township history drawing on Rev. John Clifford Eichorn's 1950 history of Calmar says a visitor walking down the main street that year would have counted more than 200 buildings, 32 of them saloons. Stagecoaches left daily for what that account calls "a poor backward village called Decorah" and "a struggling little place called Calmar." Eichorn wrote that no town ever sprang up more quickly.

One of the first businesses was a grain flat house, bought in 1865 by William Wallace Cargill. It was the start of Cargill, Incorporated. Conover was incorporated in October 1866, with an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 people, and elected its only mayor the next year.

The bet failed within five years. The railroad moved on to the northwest, Calmar became the junction with the main line in 1868, and in 1869 Conover's depot, freight house and side tracks were moved there. A branch line to Decorah, finished that year, left the main line at Conover itself. A fire that year burned much of Conover, and many residents moved to Calmar. By 1870 most of the lots were cropland again. The census found 168 people in 1880 and 49 in 1940. The post office lasted until 1916 and the railroad yards until the late 1940s.

Then and now

Conover from the air, 1940 and 2023

Conover was platted in 1864 for the railroad, and Wikipedia puts its population at 1,200 to 1,500 in 1866. The depot went to Calmar in 1869, the year a fire burned much of the town. In 1940, 49 people lived there. On September 3, 1940, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey plane photographed it: houses and gardens beside the roads, the main line running northwest toward Ridgeway and southeast toward Calmar, and the branch to Decorah curving away to the northeast. The second photograph comes from the federal farm survey of August 31, 2023.

The railroad yards closed in the late 1940s. By the 1985 USGS sheet the Decorah branch was gone and the line through Conover was drawn as an old grade. The roads are where they were and there are still houses by the crossing, but trees have grown up along the grade, and the branch shows only as a strip of grass between fields.

Houses and farm buildingsTrees on the old gradeStrip of grass on the old branchConover Road2023

Houses at ConoverRailroad junctionBranch line to DecorahConover Road1940

Houses at ConoverRailroad junctionBranch line to DecorahConover Road1940

Houses and farm buildingsTrees on the old gradeStrip of grass on the old branchConover Road2023

1940: U.S. Department of Agriculture; orthomosaic by the Iowa State University GIS Facility, source, Public domain. 2023: U.S. Department of Agriculture NAIP, via USGS The National Map, source, Public domain. Both photographs cover the same 1.6 by 1.2 km and were lined up on 15 stretches of road and lane running in five directions, to within about 1 m. Labels: the junction, the branch and the old grade from the 1958 and 1985 USGS sheets, Conover Road from today's USGS topo, the rest from what the photographs show.

Timeline

Boom, fire and cropland

1. Sep 1864Word comes that the railroad will pass through. Conley and Peterson have a village platted on what Wikipedia calls a cow pasture, within two weeks.
2. 1865The rails arrive. Sources disagree on when: the 1882 county history says the line was completed to Conover on July 20, 1865; Wikipedia says August 1865; a township history on IAGenWeb says the railroad reached the village in mid-September 1864.
3. 1865A township history drawing on John Clifford Eichorn's 1950 history says a visitor walking down the main street would have counted more than 200 buildings, 32 of them saloons, with stagecoaches leaving daily for Decorah and Calmar. A post office opens.
4. 1865William Wallace Cargill buys a grain flat house in Conover. It is the first business of what becomes Cargill, Incorporated.
5. Oct 17, 1866Conover is incorporated. Wikipedia puts its population that year at 1,200 to 1,500.
6. 1867V. C. Jacobs is elected the town's first and only mayor.
7. 1868–1869Calmar becomes the junction with the main line in 1868, and in 1869 Conover's depot, freight house and side tracks are moved there. A branch line from Conover to Decorah is completed the same year; the first regular train reaches Decorah on September 15, 1869.
8. 1869A large fire burns much of Conover, and many of its people move to Calmar. By 1870 most of the town lots are cropland again, by Wikipedia's account.
9. 1880The census counts 168 people.
10. 1884A diarist describes Conover as a town that "somehow got cheated out of great expectations."
11. 1916The post office closes.
12. 194049 people live there. Railroad cars are still checked at Conover until its yards close in the late 1940s; Anna Becvar is the last agent.

Site map

Where the town stood

Today's USGS map labels Conover where Conover Road crosses the railroad, with 245th Avenue to the east and 256th Avenue to the southwest. The aerial view shows a farmstead beside the road, fields and a strip of woods along the railroad. We haven't found a dated description of anything left from the town.

The old USGS sheets in the historic maps below follow the railroad's story. The 1906 Decorah sheet shows Conover at a junction, with one line running northwest and another branching northeast, and Calmar to the southeast. The 1958 sheet still shows Conover at the meeting of two Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific lines, one toward Ridgeway and one toward Decorah, with US 52 passing just east. By the 1985 sheet the northeast line is gone, and the line through Conover is drawn dashed, as an old grade, both to the northwest, where it is labeled as a grade, and southeast to Calmar.

• Townsite, now farmland
• Railroad line or grade through the site (use not checked)
• Conover Road crossing

Historic maps

Conover on USGS maps, 1906–1985

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.

19061:125,00019581:250,00019851:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Calmar, where most of Conover's people went, is the closest town, about six minutes away by US 52 and Conover Road. From Cedar Rapids the routed drive takes I-380 and then IA 150 most of the way north. The routes are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

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 Conover?

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

Visitor reports

Been to Conover?

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.

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Nearby

Other sites near Conover

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

• Siegel35.5 mi SW · Bremer
• Motor39.3 mi SE · Clayton
• Littleport41.5 mi SE · Clayton
• York46.2 mi SE · Delaware
• Doris50.9 mi S · Buchanan
• Wheelerwood58.9 mi W · Cerro Gordo
• Hartwick61.7 mi SE · Delaware
• Hughes84.6 mi SW · Hardin

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Conover, Iowa", retrieved October 2026: the September 1864 platting, the August 1865 arrival of the rails, the 1869 Conover–Decorah branch and the move of the Conover terminal to Calmar, more than 200 buildings and 32 saloons, Cargill's flat house, incorporation and the 1866 population estimate, the only mayor, the 1868 junction and 1869 branch, the 1869 fire, the return to cropland, the 1880 and 1940 counts, the 1884 diarist, the post office dates, the yards and the last agent, coordinates and GNIS elevation.
2. IAGenWeb Winneshiek County, "Calmar Township", last updated November 18, 2018, quoting John Clifford Eichorn's Calmar, Cradled by the Gods (1950): the railroad in mid-September 1864, Conley and Peterson's plat, the 200 buildings and 32 saloons, the stagecoaches, the October 17, 1866 incorporation and the 1869 fire.
3. W. E. Alexander, History of Winneshiek and Allamakee Counties (1882), part 27: the railroad completed to Conover on July 20, 1865, work on the Decorah branch in May 1869, Calmar's incorporation on July 12, 1869, and the first regular train into Decorah on September 15, 1869.
4. Wikipedia, "William Wallace Cargill", retrieved October 2026: his small grain-storage business in Conover in 1865, which grew into Cargill, Incorporated.
5. IAGenWeb Winneshiek County, "Towns and Places", read October 2026: Conover listed in Calmar Township on the 1874 map, among places that no longer exist.
6. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Conover on the 1906 USGS Decorah sheet: a railroad junction northwest of Calmar, with Spillville to the southwest: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• 1940 aerial photograph: U.S. Department of Agriculture; orthomosaic by the Iowa State University GIS Facility, source, Public domain
• 2023 aerial photograph: U.S. Department of Agriculture NAIP, via USGS The National Map, source, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Decorah 1906, 1:125,000; La Crosse 1958, 1:250,000; Decorah 1985, 1:100,000.