According to the WPA Guide to 1930s Iowa, pioneer Luther H. Barnes dreamed of a great city growing on the banks of the Little Sioux River in northwest Iowa. He platted Sioux Rapids in 1858 but the “community failed to thrive” and Barnes left “heart-broken and impoverished.” He may just have been a few years ahead of his time: eleven years later, D.C. Thomas and David Evans replatted the town, residents settled, and postal service was established by 1870. Sioux Rapids is now home to 720 people.