The town is named for Clarinda Buck, who according to legend carried water to the surveyors while Page County was first being surveyed.

Berry's Seed Company diversified into retail stores in the 1950s, but the stores were sold off over the following decade, and today the company, known as Berry's Garden Center, operates from its one remaining retail outlet in Danville, Illinois.

[8] The southeast area of Clarinda was once dubbed "Gun Town" and remains known by that name today.

A noted author wrote, "In the twenties and thirties, Clarinda seemed to be two separate towns: Guntown and Uptown.

The 700 block of East Garfield was a solid block of businesses--grocery stores, barber, a Chinese restaurant, another restaurant on a corner, a rug factory, a large grocery, the Swifts packing plant, and railroad tracks with freight depot and roundhouse to turn trains around.

In 1946, service was lost on the eastbound leg to Humeston and the line southwest to Tarkio, Missouri, through Coin, Iowa.

The beautiful brick depot in Clarinda still survives and is now the Student Union of the Iowa Western Community College-Clarinda campus.

One was the Iowa & Southwestern which connected Clarinda southwest through College Springs to the Iowa-Missouri border town of Blanchard.

[11][12][13] Clarinda now joins a growing list of county seats in Iowa without rail service.

[12] Air Service Camp Clarinda was located by what today is the town's municipal airport, Schenck Field (named for aviator/farmer Ray Schenck, who built the original Clarinda Airport on the location).

NSK-AKS (a subsidiary of the Japanese corporation NSK Ltd.) operates a manufacturing plant in Clarinda that produces ball and roller bearings.

[21][22] Lisle Corporation, which makes hand tools and garage creepers for auto mechanics, was founded in Clarinda in 1903.

A large mental health center, the Clarinda Treatment Complex, is located on the north edge of the city.

It has sent several players on to the major leagues, notably Baseball Hall of Fame member Ozzie Smith, who regularly returns to Clarinda for special events.

The 1910-1911 Clarinda Antelopes played as members of the Class D level Missouri-Iowa-Nebraska-Kansas League.

Coach Jeff DuPre's teams had a total of 10 players drafted during the three-year span and had players continue their college careers at schools such has Arizona State, Nebraska, Illinois, South Alabama, Jacksonville, Louisiana Tech, Grand Canyon State and South Carolina/Aiken.

[citation needed] The Clarinda Community School District serves the municipality.

[25] The Clarinda Academy, a juvenile detention facility owned by Sequel Youth Services, was the sole occupant of the former hospital grounds until its closure in 2021.

CRHC is a municipal, non-profit, Critical Access Hospital licensed for 25 in-patient beds.

[26] Daily intercity bus service to Clarinda is provided by Jefferson Lines.