Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Irwin, IA

Irwin is a small city in Shelby County, Iowa, established in 1881 by the Western Town Lot Company, with its town plat filed on June 6, 1881.

The town was named for E. W. Irwin, the landowner whose family were among the earliest settlers of northeastern Shelby County.

Before it was Irwin, the settlement was known as Tibbittsville, where a post office had been established in 1879.

Irwin grew up as an important station on the Kirkman branch of the Chicago & North Western Railroad, on the banks of the West Nishnabotna River, 14 miles northeast of Harlan, the county seat.

The city was incorporated in 1892.

The 2020 census counted 319 people in Irwin, living in 159 households and 101 families; the population peaked at 446 in 1970, and the median resident age in 2020 was 50.8 years.

On August 19, 1963, two U.S. Air Force B-47 Stratojet bombers from Schilling Air Force Base in Kansas collided in mid-air during a training exercise and crashed near Irwin, killing three of the six crewmen.

The old Irwin Consolidated School building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Irwin's own school district merged into the IKM district on July 1, 1992, which in turn became part of the IKM-Manning Community School District on July 1, 2011.