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From: SearchID <>
Subject: [CEMETERY-L] River Junction,IA - "Back On The Map" thanks to the cemetery!
Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 02:44:02 EST


Sometimes I love my mail!
__________________________
River Junction Back on Iowa Map
.c The Associated Press

RIVER JUNCTION, Iowa (AP) - Welcome back, River Junction.

With a booming population of 25, the little town is back on the state's
official road map after a 30-year absence.

``We just want to preserve our little historic area,'' Jerry Morgan, who led
the fight to have it restored, said Friday. ``We deserve to be on the map.''

Located about 30 miles south of Cedar Rapids in eastern Iowa, River Junction
is the lone addition to this year's Iowa Department of Transportation map. No
towns were removed.

River Junction was started by the railroad a century ago. The town started to
vanish when the Rock Island Lines left in the 1930s, said Morgan, president of
the Old Settler's Association that has been restoring the area's historic
buildings.

It was a ghost town by the 1960s, when it was kicked off the map for lack of
population.

But five or six people have moved to town within the last year, and Morgan
asked the DOT last year to put up a town sign on Highway 22.

``The DOT said we had to be put on the map before we could get a sign,''
Morgan said. ``So we asked, `How do we get put on the map?'''

To be on the map, unincorporated towns must meet at least two of six
requirements. River Junction meets four of them: population of 25 or more, a
retail business, an annual festival, and a school, church or cemetery. River
Junction has a cemetery.

Other qualifications listed in the Iowa Code are a ZIP-coded post office and a
building on the National Register of Historic Places.

AP-NY-03-07-98 0109EST

Copyright 1997 The Associated Press.

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