Wever, Iowa

Wever, Iowa
Unincorporated community

Building in Wever
Wever, Iowa

Location within the state of Iowa

Coordinates: 40°42′38″N 91°13′52″W / 40.71056°N 91.23111°WCoordinates: 40°42′38″N 91°13′52″W / 40.71056°N 91.23111°W
Country United States
State Iowa
County Lee
Elevation 561 ft (171 m)
Time zone Central (CST) (UTC-6)
 • Summer (DST) CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP codes 52658
GNIS feature ID 462957[1]

Wever is an unincorporated community in northeastern Lee County, in the southeastern corner of Iowa, United States.

Geography

Wever lies along U.S. Route 61, about 8 miles northeast of the city of Fort Madison, the county seat of Lee County. It is just South of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant and the Skunk River, which empties further East into the Mississippi River. .[2] Its elevation is 561 feet (171 m).[1]

History

Wever was a station on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.[3] Although Wever is unincorporated, it has a post office, which opened on May 1, 1837. This post office has a complicated name history: it opened as 'Sand Ridge', changed to 'Green Bay' on September 17, 1849, to 'Jollyville' on January 28, 1859, and finally to Wever on October 17, 1870.[4] Its ZIP code is 52658,[5]

Wever was built around a station of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad within Green Bay Township, and superseded the nearby town of Jollyville. It had 300 inhabitants when mentioned in the 1879 History of Lee County and was enjoying "good trade" because of the surounding very fertile country.[6]

The community has been part of the Micropolitan Statistical Area.

21 st century

In 2012, plans were announced to build a $ 1.4 billion fertilizer plant in Wever. The plant will use natural gas and is built by Orascom. Groundbreaking occurred in November 2012. [7] The WSJ wrote that US economic rebound and cheap energy from the shale-oil boom was luring investment from companies such as Egypt's Orascom.[8]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Wever, Iowa". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. ↑ Rand McNally. The Road Atlas '08. Chicago: Rand McNally, 2008, p. 39.
  3. ↑ The History of Lee County, Iowa. Western Historical Company. 1879. p. 679.
  4. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Wever Post Office
  5. ↑ Zip Code Lookup
  6. ↑ The History of Lee County, Iowa. Western Historical Company. 1879. p. 679.
  7. ↑ Rod Swoboda (November 28, 2012). "Iowa Fertilizer Company Begins Construction on New Plant". FarmProgress (Penton). Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  8. ↑ William Boston (17 Dec 2013). "BASF Steps Up Investment in U.S. ·". Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones).