Preparation, Iowa
human settlement in Iowa, United States of America
Preparation is a ghost town in Monona County, in the U.S. state of Iowa.
Geography
Preparation was located in Spring Valley Township.
History
Preparation was the first settlement in Spring Valley Township. Preparation was founded in 1853 by a schismatic Latter Day Saint sect led by Charles B. Thompson. The community was named from their belief that life on Earth was a preparation for the afterlife. A post office was established at Preparation in 1854, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1904.
In 1890, Preparation was home to "a store, post-office and smithy. According to the State census of 1885, the town at that time had a total population
of 588, all of American birth with the exception of some ninety-seven, who are nearly all Scandinavians."
The site of Preparation is now a part of Preparation Canyon State Park.
The public source identifies “Preparation, Iowa” as human settlement in Iowa, United States of America. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Preparation, Iowa and human.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19868101. Authority coordinates are 41.887, -95.892. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1853, 1854, 1904 and 1890.
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This entry incorporates text from “Preparation, Iowa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.