The conference was formed to meet the needs of nine small 1A schools located in the heart of Northwestern Iowa.
After Alta and Aurelia ended a 7-year sports-only sharing agreement, the bigger Twin Lakes Conference was not seen as a good fit for them.
Newell-Fonda, Pomeroy-Palmer, and Schaller-Crestland had long histories in the Bo-Coon conference, which had recently dissolved.
After nearly a decade of stability and 1A basketball dominance, the conference lost one school, Albert City-Truesdale, in 2004.
Pomeroy-Palmer left the conference to join with neighboring Pocahontas Area Community School District, reducing membership to seven.
From the formation of the conference, the schools, in conjunction with the Storm Lake Times, sponsored an annual basketball preseason challenge held the weekend before the season tip-off.