Dorchester is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in northwestern Allamakee County,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, United States. It lies along local roads just off Iowa Highway 76, north of the city of Waukon, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Allamakee County. Its elevation is 738 feet (225 m). The town was originally settled by Harvey Bell and Edmund Bell, and was named after Dorchester, England. Although Dorchester is unincorporated, it has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, with the ZIP code of 52140, which opened on 21 May 1857. Dorchester is located in Waterloo Township.

History

Dorchester was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted in 1873. Dorchester's population was 56 in 1902, and 90 in 1925. The population was 102 in 1940. Dorchester's location in the flood plain of the Upper Iowa River makes it vulnerable to flooding; the community was damaged by high waters in August 2007. It was worse hit on 8 June 2008 and succeeding days: over seven inches (over 18 cm) of rain fell on the eighth, and resulting record high floods of 22½ feet (20½ m) almost destroyed a trailer park that was a significant part of the tiny community. An LP gas tank from Dorchester was discovered just eight hours later in

Lansing Lansing () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. It is the sixth-most populous city in Michigan with a popul ...

, on the opposite side of the county.Dorchester residents work to recover from last weekend's flash flooding
, '' Waukon Standard'', 2008-06-20. Accessed 2008-06-20.

Education

All students in the area are enrolled in the

Allamakee Community School District The Allamakee Community School District (also known as ACSD) is a public school district based in the city of Waukon, Iowa, Waukon in Allamakee County, Iowa, United States. The district is mainly in Allamakee County, with a small portion in Win ...

in Waukon, even though Dorchester is closer to

Spring Grove, Minnesota Spring Grove is a city in Houston County, Minnesota, Houston County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,330 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is part of the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...

References

Unincorporated communities in Allamakee County, Iowa Unincorporated communities in Iowa 1857 establishments in Iowa Populated places established in 1857 {{AllamakeeCountyIA-geo-stub