This week in Creston
- Northwest Missouri State University Transfer Representative
Tue, Oct 27 · 9 AM · Instructional Center - Northwest Missouri State University Transfer Representative
Tue, Nov 10 · 9 AM · Instructional Center
About Creston
Creston started in 1868 as a camp for surveyors laying out the Burlington and Missouri Railroad, and it took its name from sitting on the high ridge where water parts toward the Missouri on one side and the Mississippi on the other. The railroad made it a division point, so machine shops, a roundhouse and crews recruited from Chicago and beyond turned the camp into a working town, and in 1899 the CB&Q opened a grand yellow-brick depot with a red tile roof. When passenger service faded, neighbors formed a Save the Depot Committee, wrote hundreds of letters, and reopened the building in 1978 as city hall and community rooms; since 2019 the California Zephyr stops there again. Uptown still has the six-story Iowana, built by local businessmen around 1920 for rail travelers, and the columned 1901 post office, while McKinley Park holds a lake, a historical village of old buildings and the July fireworks. Today Creston is the Union County seat and a hub for southwest Iowa, home to Southwestern Community College, and every September hot air balloons fill the sky for Balloon Days.