City of Montour, Iowa

MONTOUR CITY HALL
102 E. Elm Street
P.O. Box 120
Montour, IA  50173
641-492-6006
cityclerk2@iowatelecom.net
Council meets 1st Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m.

MONTOUR CITY PARK
Location: Elm Street & Main Street

CITY LEADERS
Mayor Adam Damman
Council:
Vicky Garske
Dave Heckman
Charles Bidwell
Jeff Hermansorfer
Mark Legg

THE STORY OF MONTOUR, IOWA
Montour was founded near the villages of Indian Village, Butlerville, and Pleasant Hill on the east side of Indian Creek and the south side of the Iowa River in 1863.  When the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, later called the Chicago and Northwestern, reached Tama County in 1861, the rails extended rather rapidly westward.  The railroad neatly intersected the Montour site almost in halves.  The original name for Montour was Orford, probably named after the town of the same name in New Hampshire, from whence some early settler had come.  When the Orford post office was established in 1865, it was found that mail, poorly addressed, was often sent to Oxford, which happened to be the name of several post offices in the country.  Because of the confusion, it was voted in 1873 to change the name to Montour.  Miss Lucie Stevens, long-time teacher in the Tama Schools, and a former resident of Montour, wrote in 1962 that her father had recommended naming the town Montour.  She stated it was for a place he knew in New York, from where he had emigrated in 1865 at the age of 21.

The residents of Montour take pride in their town located west of the Meskwaki Indian Settlement and work hard to make it a wonderful place to live.  One former organization which worked for the welfare of the town also seemed to have a good sense of humor as they named their organization EGAD (Everybody Give A Damn).

Montour is mostly a residential and farming community.  Rube’s Steakhouse, with it’s “grill your own” concept and large cuts of meat, is the anchor of the town.