Biohazard Cleanup Near West Elgin Elgin, IA

Elgin is a city in Fayette County in northeastern Iowa, nicknamed "The Little Switzerland of Iowa" for its hilly, wooded river-valley setting and its Swiss immigrant heritage.

Elgin sits at the confluence of Otter Creek with the Turkey River.

The settlement was first called "Shin Bone Valley" after white settlers arrived in the summer of 1848, following the forced removal of the Winnebago people under the 1846 treaty; Matthew Conner built the first log cabin and general store.

Surveyor K. M. Marcks renamed the town Elgin in 1851, in honor of his hometown of Elgin, Illinois, and the first postmaster, Benjamin Dimond, took office in 1852.

The Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway reached Elgin in 1872, and the town's newspaper, the Elgin Times, was established in 1875.

Elgin became a major destination for Swiss immigrants, whose heritage still shapes the town's identity.

Elgin is one of Iowa's most stable small towns: it has counted between about 610 and 702 residents in every census since 1920.

The 2020 census counted 685 people living in Elgin, in 310 households.

Elgin hosts the middle school for the North Fayette Valley Community School District, whose Tigerhawks mascot was created by blending the old Valley Tigers and North Fayette Hawks when the districts combined in 2013.