Place:Washta, Cherokee, Iowa, United States

Watchers
  • no watchers
Larger map


NameWashta
TypeCity
Coordinates42.576°N 95.718°W
Located inCherokee, Iowa, United States
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Washta is a city in Cherokee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 209 at the time of the 2020 census. It is called "The Coldest Spot in Iowa", recording a temperature of without wind chill on January 12, 1912.

Washta's name dates back to 1868 when a local man named Whisman turned his farm into a trading post/mail stop for the freight train going from Correctionville, Iowa, to Cherokee, Iowa. He was asked to be the official postmaster for the area. When asked what the name of his town would be, he recalled an interesting encounter with two Native Americans the year before: While Whisman was out hunting, the two came upon him, removed his gun, looked at it, and handed it back while saying, Wash-tay, Wash-tay, meaning "good". Changing the pronunciation slightly, Whisman decided he would call the town Washta.

[edit]

Research Tips

This place has no commentary yet. It is only a stub. You can help by editing it and sharing what you know: research tips, history, relationships with other places, etc.


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Washta, Iowa. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
Retrieved from "https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Place:Washta%2C_Cherokee%2C_Iowa%2C_United_States"