Postville Map
Postville is a city in Allamakee and Clayton Counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. It lies near the junction of four counties and at the intersection of U.S. Routes 18 and 52 and Iowa Highway 51, with airport facilities in the neighboring communities of Waukon, Decorah, Monona, and Prairie du Chien. The population was 2,273 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the southwestern corner of Allamakee County and the northwestern corner of Clayton County in a quad county or four corner region where four counties meet in the same spot. Winneshiek County is just to the west, and Fayette County is located just to the southwest of Postville.
The population of Postville was predominantly German and Norwegian for much of its existence. In 1987, a group of Hasidic Jews of the Lubavitch movement from New York purchased a non-Kosher slaughterhouse, refurbished it according to Hasidic Law and named the facility Agriprocessors, which filed for bankruptcy on November 5, 2008 following a series of alleged violations of labor law and repeated accusations of mistreatment of cattle. The facility was raided by the federal government in 2008, resulting in hundreds of arrests and disruption to the community.
The interaction of long time Postville residents with newcomers was the subject of a book about the town, Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America (ISBN 0-15-100652-0), written by Stephen Bloom, a professor at the University of Iowa.
Nearby cities include Ossian, Farmersburg, Waukon, West Union, Waterville.