Kalona, IA

Since the founding of our communities, organizations, businesses and citizens have stepped forward to build and serve their community. Click on any of the logos below to learn about those who made this website possible! If you would like to learn about becoming a sponsor CLICK HERE!

Known as the “Quilt Capital of Iowa,” Kalona itself is like a quilt-one full of unique old and new patterns. The country town’s rich pioneer heritage is proudly displayed as you tour our community.

Back in the days when the railroad was the ultimate link to everywhere, there was a man named John G. Myers who raised shorthorn cattle and, who when the B.C.R. and N. line was laid through the low lands of the English River valley, suggested calling the station on his pasture Myersville. For reasons know only to them, the rail officials declined Mr. Myers naming offer. Being a resourceful man of some wit, Myers then offered the name Kalona which having something of an Indian sound suited the officials. What they did not know and Myers did not explain was that Kalona was the name of his registered prize sire bull. All things considered, it really was not such a bad choice, for like its champion namesake, the town has proved to have strength and endurance, weathering the decline of the railroads, the dissolution of small rural communities.

Today Kalona is the second largest town in Washington County with unique identity due, in part, to a predominant Mennonite and Amish influence as well as being the largest Amish settlement West of the Mississippi