Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Oakfield, Iowa


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Withdrawn. (non-admin closure) Run n Fly (talk) 19:11, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

Oakfield, Iowa

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Another early post office entered into GNIS from the Iowa Geological Survey and lacking any testimony on the topos, and located in a corn field. There is probably some confusion with the township of the same name, but even so I couldn't find anything other than post office listings and location name drops. Mangoe (talk) 17:10, 22 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Withdrawing in light of better info and article expansion. Mangoe (talk) 04:15, 28 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Iowa-related deletion discussions.  Spiderone (Talk to Spider) 17:50, 22 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Geography-related deletion discussions.  Spiderone (Talk to Spider) 17:50, 22 May 2021 (UTC)


 * This is really hard to research. At least one source is useless because it doesn't clarify whether it is talking about the town or township.  Ironically, in contrast to the easier-to-research ones it turns out to be an actual populated town.  It's the reason that the Township exists, as it turns out from the history books and some footnotes to the  that I found it originally it was a major town in Audubon county, back when had just the Exira, Oakfield, and Audubon townships. The 1880 Lippincott's Gazetteer matched an Oakfield post-office in an Oakfield Township &hellip; in Wisconsin: i.e. Oakfield, Wisconsin and Oakfield (town), Wisconsin.  But a few entries above on the same page, not matched, it does indeed have the one in Iowa, and calls it a "post-village", which means that it was more than just someone's farmhouse. (It uses "post-township" and "post-hamlet" similarly.) The 1929 Annals of Iowa has this in its "Abandoned Towns of Iowa" listing on page 443.  ("In southwest part of section 29, Exira Township. It was platted about 1855, soon had mills, stores and was a thriving town until 1868 [&hellip;]") Lippincott's goes on to say that it is on the Nishnabatona River (which I presume to be a mis-spelling of Nishnabotna River) and has "2 stores and a flour-mill".  Andrews's 1915  has a fairly extensive history of the town on page 288, with further stuff on pages 32, 54 (where it explains how it was eclipsed by Brayton, Iowa in 1871), and elsewhere.  Looking through the History there seems to be enough from that alone to do an article.  So it's not an "unincorporated community", but a village, in fact a town per the Andrews History, that came and went in the 19th century and is in at least one history book in fair depth. This one is actually fixable.  Uncle G (talk) 18:44, 22 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep if Uncle G's research is to be believed, than this was a populated town at one point. Meaning that for once, this passes WP:GEOLAND.--🌀 Locomotive207 - talk  🌀 21:50, 22 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep; I AM THE LORAX, I SPEAK FOR THE TREES... uh.. wait, I mean, I speak for the former populated places of rural Iowa.  I speak for the disappeared towns that have no tongues!  Except in tons of reliable sources if you look.  Come on, Mangoe, yesterday it was Articles for deletion/Poplar, Iowa which is actually part of a rural historic district, today I find this one.  I'm happy to rely on you for only-ever-was California railroad sidings in the desert, you do great work with those, but we shouldn't have to scurry around just because google maps shows this is a cornfield in 2021.  I know some folks get disgruntled that these mass stubs were created years ago, but we can't fix that except over time, if it really is a bad thing.  For Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa has a great resource of old newspapers here.  cheers to all.--Milowent • hasspoken  19:08, 26 May 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm happy enough to withdraw this one, given some actual narrative history of a town to go from. That said, there are still lots of places which don't have such info, and for which there isn't evidence that they genuinely were ever towns. I don't see a need for these articles to exist until they do have such documentation written into them, and the history thus far is that it's pretty rare for people to put the effort in until they are put up for deletion. If you want to take over for me in sorting through the Iowan cases, I'll gladly move on to another state. But someone needs to do the work. Mangoe (talk) 04:14, 28 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the withdrawal and your efforts. I am happy to take over sorting through Iowa, but I must admit I WON'T ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING.  Its fun to be a volunteer!  So we will muddle on as we are, I suppose.--Milowent • hasspoken  13:32, 28 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Keep. Milowent's excellent work expanding this article, with references, as convinced me this community was notable. notability is not temporary, so this article should stay. Firsfron of Ronchester  22:49, 26 May 2021 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.