Crawford

Formed January 15, 1853 (80^th county)

Crawford County (16,526), Denison (8,373)                

The dome was removed in 1946 from the 1904 masonry building.  The courthouse is on Broadway Avenue between Avenues B and C.  United States Highway 30 is four blocks south of the building.  George A. Berlinghof is the architect of this Classical Revival courthouse.  The facility features columns and marble floors and the grounds have veteran memorials.  The county was created on January 15, 1853 from Shelby County as the 80^th county with Denison as the only county seat.  It is named for Secretary of the Treasury William Harris Crawford.  Settler J. W. Denison is the namesake for the county seat. 

Crawford County government consists of a sheriff and 5 Supervisors.  Twenty District Court Judges and Fourteen Magistrates serve Crawford, Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Ida, Lyon, Kossuth, Monona, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Sioux, and Woodbury counties.  Crawford County is in western Iowa.  Des Moines, Iowa is southeast and Sioux City, Iowa is northwest of the county.  The county center is 3.4 miles West-Northwest of Denison.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Sac, Carroll, Shelby, Harrison, Monona, and Ida counties. 

The county has an area of 714 square miles.  It is 13 of 99 in the state.  It ranks 46 out of 99 in population in the state.  It has a density of 23.1 persons per square mile making it 62 out of 99 in the state.  Crawford County has 75.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 30 crosses the county east to southwest from Carroll County to Harrison County.  United States Highway 59 travels north to south from Ida County to Shelby County.  The county is a square with Denison slightly south and east of center in the county.  Denison is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 50.7% of the county population.

Westside