It was named for William Mitchell Zearing, a judge from Chicago who donated a bell to the first church in the community.

[citation needed] Zearing is located 12.3 mi (19.8 km) northeast of Nevada, the county seat.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.75 square miles (1.94 km2), all land.

The racial makeup of the town was 93.75% White, less than 0.5% African American, 4.2% mixed race, and 1.51% Hispanic.

17% of the town lives under the poverty line, which is far higher than the rest of the state which has an average of 11%.

61% of the population of the town is identified as currently married, with 11.7% of women between the ages of 15 and 50 gave birth during that year, almost double the state average.

[7] 92.5% of the Zearing population has received a high school degree, which is the same as the Iowa state average.

This celebration used to be held to commemorate Labor Day, but had not been put on since the 1980s, that was until 2000 when a group of Zearing residents decided to start the tradition again.

Once started back up again, the first celebration – Just Horsin' Around – was titled in honor of the late Dick Sparrow's 40-horse hitch.

Individuals such as Verne Matson, Eric Brown, and Dean Johnston all successfully worked with large draft horse teams and claimed Zearing as home.