Community of Granite

Community of Granite. Sioux Township, Lyon Co., IA. This area, where Blood Run Creek passes on its way to the Big Sioux River, was inhabited by Native Americans between 1300 and 1750, as many as 4,000 Oneota Indians lived on the fertile prairie. European explorers and traders arrived in the late 1600's. Pioneers followed, to build dugouts and sod houses, on the 1870's Sioux River Valley., D. C. Rice surveyed and staked out blocks, lots, and streets in the SW quarter of Sect. 19, Twnshp. 100, Rg. 48 on June 12, 1886, at the request of owners Richard and Bessie Pettigrew and Samuel and Bell Tate. The town of Iuka was officially filed March 14, 1887., Transportation was new in this area as stagecoach trails passed on their way to and from Dakota Territory. Railroads traveling across the prairies brought the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Northwestern Railway in 1886. In 1893, the Board of Supervisors established a "Granite Highway" to go through the Village of Iuka. The town name officially changed to Granite in late 1887. In 1900, fifty people resided here. The railroad changed to the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad in 1903. The Depot, on the SE edge of town had a passenger train that went west through Granite about 10 a.m. daily and returned at 3 p.m.. Two grain elevators operated next to the railroad tracks. Stockyards and scale house were used by farmers who brought their livestock to Granite. Each year, a special trainload of cattle was shipped to the Chicago Union Stockyards and had right-of-way over all rail traffic for the remarkable 36 hour trip. These shipments reached their peak shortly after world war one., J. DeZotell's Store, started in 1918, was a community gathering center; he had a gas station and later operated a "night club" in the basement. A ball park, that was a pasture on the north edge of town, found the Granite team playing local town teams. In 1920, J. C. Zimmer opened a Drug Store with a soda fountain. The Grand View Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Church parsonage was also a gathering place for the community., Chartered in 1920, the Granite Savings Bank became the only bank in Lyon Co. to remain open through The Great Depression. In the fall of 1934, as the small village was disappearing, the bank and bank building moved to Larchwood. Now known as the Security Savings Bank, it is the oldest chartered bank in Lyon County., The flood of 1972 took out the railroad tracks, and most businesses are now but fading recollections as the years pass by. This community still shares memories of those who came to this area before us; their spirit prevails as we continue to remember and treasure what they have experienced. We will move forward in their honor.