Cherokee

History

Cherokee was laid out as a town in 1870, and was named for the Southeast Indian tribe, most of whose members had been removed to Indian Territory in the late 1830s. Cherokee was incorporated on April 5, 1873. Tyson Foods closed its Tyson Foods Deli Plant in Cherokee on September 27, 2014. Tyson was the largest employer in Cherokee at the time, and they laid off approximately 450 employees or over eight percent of the total population of Cherokee.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Cherokee has a typical Iowa humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa) featuring very warm summers and freezing to frigid winters. In the drought year of 1958, however, Cherokee received a mere of precipitation, which remains the all-time record low for a calendar year anywhere in Iowa.

Race & ethnicity