Leo Ryan Articles

Capoli: The Village History Forgot

This article by Br. Leo Ryan, CSV, was published in Bulletin No. 233 of the Iowa Postal History Association in the third quarter of 2005.

Before the United States became a country (July 4, 1776) and before Iowa was a territory (February 6, 1838) or a state (December 28, 1846) and long before Allamakee County was established (January 15, 1849) Capoli existed. Capoli (CAP-oh-li) was the name given to an important riverboat and explorer landmark along the Mississippi River. Capoli designates a unique, geologically dramatic, two-mile angled bluff rising 420 feet above the Mississippi, just below present day Lansing, Iowa.

Capoli village and post office took their name from this neighboring bluff. Capoli was settled on a small tract of land on the south side of Paint Creek at the point where the Creek empties into the Mississippi.