Blood & Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Manly Manly, IA

Manly is a city in Worth County in north-central Iowa, part of the Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Manly was laid out in 1877 as Manly Junction, at the junction of two railroads — the Rock Island and the Chicago Great Western — and was named for J. C. Manly, a railroad freight agent.

Manly Junction was incorporated as the Town of Manly on October 18, 1898, and officially became the City of Manly in 1973 under Iowa's Home Rule Act.

In 1912 the Rock Island Railroad made Manly a division point, building a roundhouse and shops that employed several hundred workers.

The railroad boom transformed Manly almost overnight — its population exploded from just 346 people in 1910 to 1,476 in 1920, a jump of more than 326%.

Manly had 1,256 residents at the 2020 census, making it the second-largest community in Worth County after the county seat, Northwood.

A Rock Island caboose and a Rock Island locomotive now sit beside the railroad crossing on Iowa Highway 9 in Manly, commemorating the town's railroading heritage.

Manly celebrates its railroad roots each year with its annual Railroad/Ag Days celebration.

Manly's public schools are operated by the Central Springs Community School District, formed by the merger of the North Central and Nora Springs-Rock Falls districts, with Central Springs High School serving the town's students.

Despite the decline of railroad employment, rail-served grain handling remains part of Manly's economy today, alongside corn, soybean and livestock farming.