Sutliff 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 Cedar Township, Johnson 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, just south of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. The community was founded at the location of Sutliff's ferry. The ferry was operated from 1838 or 1840 onward by Allen (or Allan) C. Sutliff (1796–1873), the elder brother of the Ohio Supreme Court Judge Milton Sutliff (1806–1878). Sutliff, later sold the ferry service to Jim McLellan, whose nickname of "Butts" also tagged the community with the name Buttsville. The community is known for its

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, which was badly damaged during the Iowa Flood of 2008.''Iowa City Press-Citizen'', Oct. 19, 2008. Baxa's Sutliff Store & Tavern is the main public business. The Sutliff Store has been sitting on the banks of the Cedar River next to the Historic Sutliff Bridge since 1899. The Sutliff Bridge was reconstructed through FEMA funding approved by the Johnson County Board of Supervisors by a 3–2 vote. The reconstruction was supervised by VJ Engineering and construction was completed by Iowa Bridge and Culvert of Washington, Iowa. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held in October 2012 to open the bridge to the public again. It had been closed for four years following the devastation of the 2008 flood.

References

Unincorporated communities in Iowa Unincorporated communities in Johnson County, Iowa Iowa City metropolitan area 1838 establishments in Iowa Territory {{JohnsonCountyIA-geo-stub