Waukon is a city in Makee Township,
Allamakee County, Iowa, United States, and the county seat of Allamakee County. The population was 3,827 at the time of the 2020 census.
History
Waukon is often said to be named for Waukon Decorah, a Ho Chunk (Winnebago) leader who was a U.S. ally during the 1832 Black Hawk War, although the city is also said to be named for his son Chief John Waukon. Winnebagos lived in this area of Iowa in the 1840s, before being forced to relocate to Minnesota.
The first white settler arrived in 1849, and the city was founded and the Waukon Post Office opened in 1853. A courthouse was completed in 1861, and the county seat was moved to Waukon in 1867 after 8 elections attempting to decide the location of the county seat. The city was incorporated on April 4, 1883.
Waukon is only about 16 miles from Waukon Junction, on the Mississippi River, but the rail line between these two points was 33 miles long, climbing 600 feet through some of the roughest terrain in Iowa. The Waukon and Mississippi Railroad, which opened in 1877, was originally built as a narrow gauge line. The line was widened to standard gauge after purchase by the Milwaukee Road. Its only marginal traffic through its existence led to the road's abandonment in the late 1960s.
thumb|The Mississippi Valley Iron Co. ore processing plant in 1918.
There is a deposit of limonite (Iron Ore) about 3 miles northeast of Waukon called Iron Mine Hill, holding an estimated 10 million tons of ore. This is the highest point in northeastern Iowa. the Waukon Iron Company began developing an open-pit mine and ore-washing plant on this site in 1899, with a capacity of 300 tons per 10-hour shift. Production was seriously limited by the need to haul the ore 3 miles to the railroad, and the mine was, ultimately, a failure.
A second and better capitalised attempt to mine this deposit was begun in 1907 by the Missouri Iron Company, with a railroad connection built in 1910 and a new ore processing plant completed in 1913 with a capacity of 350 to 400 tons per day. The total investment was estimated at $225,000, and two patents were issued for the machinery in the ore processing plant. This mine became the principal mine of the new Mississippi Valley Iron Company of St. Louis, Missouri in 1916.
That year, the mine produced 10,151 tons of concentrated ore, and in 1917, it produced 22,612 tons. In 1918 the mine produced over 7000 tons before it was shut down because of World War I.
The mine never recovered from this shutdown, and the equipment was sold for scrap in 1937. Iron Mine Drive and Allamakee Street cross north of the sites of both old mines ().
Geography
The headwaters of the north branch of Paint Creek are in Waukon, and the town is just south of the headwaters of Village Creek. This is on the west edge of the deeply eroded Driftless Area of northeast Iowa.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land.