Located in Woodbury County on the Little Sioux River, Correctionville is the town with the longest single name in Iowa.

But does the name Correctionville mean what we think it means?

(metal doors slamming shut) Sonya Kostan: I think when most people hear that you're from Correctionville they assume there's a prison nearby and we often laugh at them and say no, no.

♪♪ Sonya Kostan: I'm Sonya Kostan, welcome to Correctionville.

♪♪ Sonya Kostan: Correctionville was named after the correction line that runs right here on 5th Street.

You can see there's a street coming from the south there, it jogs about 100 feet and then it heads north again.

♪♪ The reason for the jog goes all the way back to the land ordinance of 1785.

Thomas Jefferson proposed a grid system to divide the land into one square mile plots, each consisting of 640 acres.

♪♪ Because the Earth is round, lines running north and south will eventually converge.

In order to keep the lines straight, a correction must be made every 24 miles.

♪♪ There are two correction lines in Iowa, one from Scott County to Harrison County and another from Dubuque to Sioux City.

♪♪ If you look at a satellite map, you can see a number of places along those lines where the north south roads don't line up.

♪♪ Sonya Kostan: And we're standing on the correction line here in Correctionville.

♪♪ Sonya Kostan: It's a very old town.

It was plotted in 1855.

It had two railroads that came through, the Illinois Central and the Chicago Northwestern.

That created a boom town in the 1880s.

It's a historic town, which is always appeals to me.

It has lots of old buildings.

This is the G.A.R.

Hall.

It stands for the Grand Army of the Republic.

It was a Union soldiers, veterans' organization.

But the building was originally built as a schoolhouse in 1872.

The veterans have done a wonderful job of maintaining this building and they have also developed a wonderful park to honor our veterans.

♪♪ Kev Koskovich: You are presently standing in our archaeological room at the Correctionville Public Museum.

Most of these came from the Oneida culture.

They were a sedentary tribe of Native Americans who lived all along the Little Sioux River all the way down to Onawa.

We estimate that at one time there were as many as 15,000 to 20,000 people living along here.

♪♪ Kev Koskovich: I love this town.

It's so nice to be able to walk down the street and know everybody, have them know you.

♪♪