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 Welcome
to
Ocheyedan, Iowa!
"Home of the Mound"
In the summer of 1884 the Burlington, Cedar
Rapids and Northern Railroad, now the Chicago, Rock Island and
Pacific, crossed the northern part of Osceola county. The coming
of the railroad was a great event on the prairie and in the
sparsely settled region here-one of the last in Iowa to be
settled.
In the fall of 1884 building activities began and the prairie
town of Ocheyedan was a busy place with every available person
at some kind of work. The first building put up on the town site
was a shanty-more popularly called shack. The post office was
moved to the town site that year from Rush Lake where it had
been located from 1875. Rush Lake is a mile northeast of the
town site and is noted for its excellent wildfowl hunting.
Ocheyedan, like many small Iowa towns, has lost population
through the years. It now has a population of only 545 but has
been recognized by the state betterment committee for many
projects of improvement in business, housing, retirement,
recreation, churches, schools and other lines of endeavor.
Just where Ocheyedan gets its name is really not known. In the
early Dacotah (Sioux) dictionary compiled in 1852 were two
names, Acheya and Akicheya, meaning to mourn as for a dead
relative. The Indians of the area applied these to landmarks in
the area to commemorate two Indian boys who were killed here by
a party of tribal enemies. Acheya (white settlers pronounced it
Ocheyedan) is a mourning ground. Ocheyedan was the name applied
to Nobles county's (Minnesota) largest lake. An "n" was added
and the town in Osceola county was named "Ocheyedan."
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