Urkhammer, Iowa: The Town that Disappeared

An artist’s interpretation of Urkhammer, Iowa

During the birth of the United States many small towns sprung up and then faded away due to varying factors such as the gold rush or changes in industry. According to one legend, however, one small town in Iowa suffered a stranger and unexplained disappearance.

An abandoned underpass near Route #41, near where Urkhammer, Iowa was reportedly located.

Urkhammer, Iowa, located along Route #41, was a fairly unassuming small town in America’s Midwest. There was little to make it stand out from the other small towns that were dotted across the flat plains of Iowa until suddenly it was gone.

In 1929 an article was published in the Clarion-Sun-Telegraph, a newspaper out of Davenport, Iowa, that told of two mysterious events that had recently occurred in Urkhammer.      

In the first event an airplane was said to have flown over the town but and noticed that it looked to be abandoned. The fields were overgrown and unattended and the roads were being overtaken by weeds.

A week after these photos were taken it is reported that a man was driving through Urkhammer and was about to run out of gas. He stopped at the gas station and filled up his car then got back on the road only to find his car had completely run out of gas within a few miles of leaving town.

Furious the man walked back towards Urkhammer to get his money back from the gas station who he assumed ripped him off. He could still see the town but even after two hours of walking towards it the town never seemed to get any closer.

Eventually a passing motorist stopped and shared some fuel with the man and he was able to get back on the road. It is said that he was so unnerved by his experience in Urkhammer that he had to spend time in a mental hospital shortly afterwards.

Several weeks later a Miss Fatima Morgana wrote in to the newspaper, angry that they had painted her hometown as being ghostly or run down. Miss Morgana claimed to have worked un Urkhammer as a school teacher for a number of years and was a part of the town’s anti-saloon league.

That was not the last spooky story to come out of Urkhammer. In 1932, a group of farm families moving to California from Illinois decided to camp for the night on the outskirts of Urkhammer. The groups gathered some money together and sent two men into Urkhammer to purchase some supplies for their journey and some alcohol for the night.

When the men reached Urkhammer’s general store they tried to climb the steps to go inside. To their surprise their feet went straight through the steps as if there was nothing there.

The men returned to camp with their strange story and no one believed them until a group of a dozen men returned to the store and found themselves also unable to mount the steps. Unnerved, the group packed up and left immediately.

When news of this strange occurrence spread, a group of Iowa State Police headed to the towns sheriffs office to try and clear up this strange story, assuming it to be the silly antics of drunken men.

When the police reached the Sheriff’s office they found themselves unable to knock on the door as their hands went straight through.

On May 7, 1932, a passing farmer who remembered the town from his childhood discovered that it was gone. All that that was left in the area where the town once stood were abandoned fields, rotting fences, and one cast-iron bathtub.

An abandoned bathtub in a field was all that was left of Urkhammer, Iowa. Photo:vecteezy.

What Happened to Urkhammer?

• The consensus on the internet seems to be that the town never existed at all. There are no references to Urkhammer, Iowa before a story was posted about it in 2015. It also seems that the Davenport Clarion-Sun-Telegraph never existed.

• Some would say that Urkhammer was just another small town to fall by the wayside as times progressed with some paranormal elements being added to stories off it for entertainment.

If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy earning about the village that disappeared at Lake Anjikuni or the mysterious disappearance of Vladimir Bastl.