Hamburg, Iowa

Hamburg, Iowa
City
The community on June 16, 2011 during the 2011 Missouri River floods after a levee protecting it was breached. A second levee was built and held
Location of Hamburg, Iowa
Coordinates: 40°36′21″N 95°39′18″W / 40.60583°N 95.65500°W / 40.60583; -95.65500Coordinates: 40°36′21″N 95°39′18″W / 40.60583°N 95.65500°W / 40.60583; -95.65500
Country	United States
State	Iowa
County	Fremont
Area
• Total	1.10 sq mi (2.85 km2)
• Land	1.10 sq mi (2.85 km2)
• Water	0 sq mi (0 km2)
Elevation	919 ft (280 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	1,187
• Estimate (2012)	1,137
• Density	1,079.1/sq mi (416.6/km2)
Time zone	Central (CST) (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP code	51640
Area code(s)	712
FIPS code	19-33780
GNIS feature ID	0457215

Hamburg is the most southwestern city in Iowa hugging the borders of Missouri to the south and Nebraska to the west. It derives its name from the German city of Hamburg. It is the corporate headquarters of Vogel Popcorn which claims to be the source of 52 percent of the popcorn grown in the United States.

It is located in Fremont County, Iowa, United States, and is situated between the Nishnabotna River and the Missouri River. The population was 1,187 at the 2010 census.

The city is less than a quarter mile from the Missouri state line. The first settlers in the community were people who actually thought they were settling in Missouri following the Platte Purchase of former Indian territory there across the state line opened up settlement. The first formal settlement in the Hamburg vicinity were by the brothers James McKissick, Cornelius McKissick, Daniel McKissick who established McKissick's Grove. A survey was made when Iowa entered the union in 1846, and only then did the settlers discover that they were in Iowa and not Missouri.

The brothers were also involved in another border irregularity when they bought McKissick Island a mile south of Hamburg. They thought at the time the island in the Missouri River was attached to Nebraska territory. The river changed course in 1867 resulting in the island becoming physically attached by dry land to Missouri and cut off from Nebraska by the main channel. Missouri and Nebraska both claimed the island and it was decided in 1904 by the U.S. Supreme Court that it belonged to Nebraska, although the states did not formally agree to the arrangement until 1999. In the meantime students from the Nebraska island passed through Missouri en route to being educated in Hamburg in Iowa.

Hamburg was formally laid out in 1857 at the behest of Augustus Borchers (August Heinrich B., August 26, 1817, Harburg near Hamburg, Germany - November 23, 1885, Hamburg (Ia.)) who named for the German city and was formally incorporated on April 1, 1867 at about the same time as it was reached by the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph Railroad. A second railroad Nebraska City Branch of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad (which came from Red Oak, Iowa) came through in 1870.