Sibley

History

Sibley had its start in the year 1872 by the construction of the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad through that territory. It is the oldest town in Osceola County. Sibley is named after Henry Hastings Sibley, a prominent general during the Dakota War of 1862, who eventually became the first governor of Minnesota. William L. Harding, governor of Iowa from 1917 to 1921, was born in Sibley in 1877. In March 2018, the city of Sibley lost a lawsuit brought against it by the ACLU. Local resident Josh Harms had criticized local officials for failing to stop the "rancid dog food" smell coming from a local pork blood processing plant, which he believed would dissuade people from moving to the town. The city of Sibley threatened to sue him and instructed him not to speak to the media about the issue. The ACLU successfully argued that this violated Harms' First Amendment rights to free speech. An injunction was granted, preventing Sibley's officials from "directing Harms not to speak with reporters, threatening to bring a lawsuit, or actually bringing a lawsuit against" Harms. In September 2018, the city of Sibley was featured in an Esquire article by Ryan Lizza on dairy farms in the region that employ undocumented immigrants. Dairy farmers and their workers expressed concern that they might be raided by ICE. Indeed, the fear of such a raid was so acute that "[o]ne dairy farmer said . . . that [Western Iowa Dairy Alliance] members have discussed forming a NATO-like pact that would treat a raid on one dairy as a raid on all of them." The Des Moines Register, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Bloomberg, and Salon. In 2025, it was reported that Sibley had no candidates on the ballot for their 2025 Mayoral Election and their City Ward 1 election. Sibley is one of a few cities…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Sibley Ocheyedan Elementary School
  Elementary · Sibley · 303 students · 12.1:1 ratio
• Sibley-Ocheyedan High School
  High · Sibley · 227 students · 12.6:1 ratio
• Sibley-Ocheyedan Middle School
  Middle · Sibley · 199 students · 15.3:1 ratio