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Office: Ida County Emergency Management – confirm current contact via idacounty.iowa.gov.
Sheriff: Ida County Sheriff’s Office – 401 Moorehead Street, Ida Grove, IA 51445 | (712) 364-3146; Sheriff Wade Harriman, first elected 1998, the county’s 20th sheriff. Communications center dispatches fire and ambulance in addition to law enforcement; K-9 unit since 1999. Hours: Mon-Fri 8 AM-4:30 PM.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-59 and IA-175 serve Ida Grove, the county seat, in western Iowa.
Notes: Ida County was authorized by the Iowa Legislature in January 1851, though it had no residents at the time and wasn’t formally organized until later; it is named for Ida Smith, the first child of European immigrants born in the region. The Chicago & North Western Railway’s Maple Valley branch reached the county in 1877, prompting the relocation of Ida Grove itself from the north side of the river (“Old Ida Grove,” founded 1871) to its present south-side location along the new tracks.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Ida County Courthouse – 401 Moorehead Street, Ida Grove, IA (built 1883, Italianate style; National Register of Historic Places since 1974; the second courthouse in county history).
Notes: Ida Grove carries the genuinely delightful nickname “Castletown, USA,” earned through the singular vision of local businessman Byron LeRoy Godbersen (1925-2003), a farm boy turned wealthy industrialist who founded Midwest Industries, a manufacturer of marine and small farm equipment. Inspired by castles he saw on a European trip, Godbersen had his company’s buildings and much of the town’s public architecture built in a whimsical medieval style beginning in the 1970s – a shopping plaza, a newspaper office, an airport hangar, a roller-skating rink (the “Skate Palace”), and a castellated bridge with a working drawbridge over a creek on the town’s golf course. His most personal project was Lake LaJune, an artificial 8-acre lake dug from a cornfield and named for his wife, complete with a half-scale replica of the HMS Bounty built by his own employees, and his private castle-style home nearby, featuring its own moat and drawbridge. Godbersen’s legacy remains a beloved, still-standing local landmark today.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Ida County Veterans Affairs – 401 Moorehead Street, Ida Grove, IA 51445.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Ida Grove Public Library (Ida Grove) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Castles of Ida Grove (shopping plaza, Skate Palace, airport hangar, golf course bridge), Lake LaJune with its HMS Bounty replica, and the Ida County Courthouse are the county’s premier heritage and recreational attractions.
Notes: The genuine, one-of-a-kind “Castletown, USA” architecture – the product of a single visionary local industrialist – is among the most delightfully unusual small-town landmarks covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Ida County Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via idacounty.iowa.gov.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
⚠️ No confirmed dedicated Ida County, Iowa animal shelter was found in current sourcing. Residents should contact the Ida County Sheriff’s Office, (712) 364-3146, for current animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Ida County Environmental Health – confirm current contact via idacounty.iowa.gov.
NOTES: Ida County is the forty-eighth county in Iowa’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine, one-of-a-kind “Castletown, USA” architecture is among the most delightfully unusual small-town landmarks covered anywhere in this project. ⚠️ Animal services could not be confirmed and are flagged for follow-up rather than smoothed over. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Ida County County
Ida County is northwest Iowa’s castle-builder community and Maple River agricultural county – the unexpected medieval architecture scattered through a small farm town and the rolling loess hills corn and soybean landscape define a community where Ida Grove serves the county’s agricultural population in the west Iowa interior.
Ida Grove (the county seat, population ~2,100) is Ida County’s governmental hub on US 59, a northwest Iowa agricultural community whose castle landmarks, Maple River watershed, and farming economy anchor its identity.
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Ida County Assessor at 401 Moorehead Street, Ida Grove, IA 51445, phone 712-364-2625. IA assessed at actual value.
Courts & Legal
Ida County District Court at 401 Moorehead Street, Ida Grove, IA 51445, phone 712-364-2628, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF DISTRICT COURT (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
401 Moorehead St., Ida Grove, IA 51445
(712) 364-2628
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Ida County District Court (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Ida County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Ida County District Court, 3rd Judicial District 401 Moorehead Street, Ida Grove, IA 51445 (712) 364-2628 Ida County is in western Iowa, seated in Ida Grove, a small rural community.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Iowa has its own comprehensive probate code (Iowa Code Chapter 633) and has not formally adopted the Uniform Probate Code. Iowa offers several tracks depending on estate size and complexity:
Distribution by Affidavit (“very small estates”) – for estates where the gross value of personal property is $50,000 or less and there is no real estate, available 40 days after death under Iowa Code § 633.356. A sworn affidavit is presented directly to banks and other institutions. No court filing is required.
Small Estate Administration – a simplified probate process under Iowa Code Chapter 635 for estates with a gross value of $200,000 or less, with reduced notice requirements and court costs compared to full administration.
Regular (Full) Probate – standard administration through the district court for larger or more complex estates, which can be independent (unsupervised) or supervised.
Supervised Administration – closer court oversight, typically used for contested estates.
Step 2: filing for formal probate
File a Petition for Probate of Will and Appointment of Executor (if there’s a will) or a Petition for Administration (if intestate) with the Ida County District Court.
The court admits the will (if any) and issues Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (intestate) appointing the personal representative.
Publish notice to creditors; under independent administration, creditors generally have 4 months from the date of first publication to file claims.
The personal representative inventories assets, pays valid debts and expenses, and – under independent administration – largely acts without ongoing court check-ins.
After the creditor period closes and debts are paid, the personal representative distributes assets to heirs or beneficiaries.
File a final accounting/final report; the court closes the estate upon approval.
What it costs
Personal representative fees are capped by statute at 3% of the gross value of the probate estate (excluding life insurance) unless services are itemized; attorney fees follow a similar framework.
Recording fees at the county recorder run about $7 for the first page of a document and $5 for each additional page.
Typical timelines: Distribution by Affidavit – a minimum 40-day wait; independent (unsupervised) probate typically closes in 6-12 months, with the 4-month creditor period as the primary timing constraint.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
401 Moorehead St., Ida Grove, IA 51445
(712) 364-2219
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY AUDITOR (Records, Elections, Finance)
401 Moorehead St., Ida Grove, IA 51445
(712) 364-3622
ELECTIONS (County Auditor)
401 Moorehead St., Ida Grove, IA 51445
(712) 364-3622
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Office: Ida County Public Health – 701 E. 2nd Street, Ida Grove, IA 51445.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Ida Grove
Population: 6,900
Area: 432 sq mi
Established: 1853
Public Records
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