History · Dike

Dike’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of Dike. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

1901established
0old images & papers
4recent photos

The story

from WikipediaRead it all ↗

Chester Thomas Dike, a railroad construction engineer, inspired the name Dike. Dike chose the site and laid out the town in 1900. The community was incorporated on January 16, 1901.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Be one of the first

Start Dike’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Dike’s history is told.

0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Famous people from DikeWriters, athletes, leaders and more who were born in Dike.Meet them →
By decade

Dike, decade by decade

Before
2000
No old photos in the archives yetWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
📷 Add from your album
National Register of Historic Places

Nothing in Dike is on the National Register yet

That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Dike has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Rownd, C. A., Round Barn in Cedar Falls, 8.6 miles away.

How a place gets listed

1Talk to the stateEvery nomination goes through the State Historic Preservation Office. Owners, towns and historical societies can start one.
2Try a local or state list firstMany states keep their own register with a shorter form, a common first step for old barns, halls and schoolhouses.
3Write it upA nomination covers the history, photos and a map. Rownd, C. A., Round Barn’s page links to a real one.
Know an old place in Dike?A mill, a schoolhouse, a cellar hole, a church: add a photo of it to Dike’s story, or a memory of it.
📷 Add a photo of an old place
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places · photos from Wikimedia Commons

Then & now

When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history

From Wikimedia Commons (3) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

We left the porch light on

Where to, neighbor?

You’re in Dike, IAView boundary

Nearby

All towns & citiesExplore the map
Loading boundary…

Dike is your selected town. The feed includes posts assigned to this town, not a distance radius or ZIP code.

Neighborhoods narrow the feed further, while townwide announcements, events, and issues remain visible.

Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/18 · 2025-01-01