Donnan, Iowa

[5] By the 1930s, several improvements had been made in the town, including a diagonal road built alongside the Rock Island railroad.

[5] The City of Donnan was the state's smallest recognized community in 1954; the post office served 12 families (50 residents) and the school.

Postal Service that year decided to close the Donnan post office, but due to protests from residents, in February 1955 the closure was cancelled.

[9] By 1977, Donnan consisted of "an abandoned grain elevator, an unused railroad depot, three farms, four occupied houses, and a few empty buildings".

[14] Donnan's few remaining residents fought "long, hard, and unsuccessfully" to keep the post office open.

When the post office closed, on July 23, 1982,[3] commemorative covers prepared by the Iowa Postal History Society gave the town's population as ten.

[15] In 1990, the last seven residents[16] made national headlines when they reluctantly voted to disincorporate, ending their town's status as an officially recognized city.

[5] At the disincorporation hearing Matt Porter, who had served as the town's mayor for 35 years, stated "Three of us are in our 70s and sooner or later it's got to come.

In October 2007, like Donnan before it, Randalia lost its post office, some time after losing its school and general store.

Plat map of Donnan from 1916.
A Donnan aerial photo taken in the 1930s, showing Donnan's new main street, New Donnan Road (running diagonally from southwest to northeast). Woodard Street and Logan Street can also be clearly seen in the photo.
Map of Iowa highlighting Fayette County