RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Iowa >> Winnebago County >> RatnaIndex...

Welcome to Ratna ...

So far, we found very little information about Ratna. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Ratna to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Ratna, please Contact Us.


Ratna would have been located within present day Winnebago County<2>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Ratna, you might consider that their post office opened in 1892.

While the community is gone, the present day location for Ratna is 1,240 feet [378 m] above sea level.<3>.

Time Zone: The area where Ratna was located is in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time

The Area Code where Ratna was located: 641

Communities near Ratna ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Ratna.

  • Clear Lake
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Forest City
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Garner
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Lake Mills
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Northwood
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Manly
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Buffalo Center
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Ventura
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Thompson
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Kiester
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Kiester is located in Faribault County (MN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kiester
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 456 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kiester <4>

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Ratna. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Ratna.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Ratna. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Ratna.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Ratna. See our Newspapers Page for Ratna.

Adding Ratna to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Ratna in the GNIS. For more information, see the Referenced GNIS Codes section on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Ratna was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<5>

From that list, the Ratna post office opened in 1892. The Ratna post office closed in 1900.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Ratna.

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Ratna, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>If you're interested in how the shape of Iowa's counties, including Winnebago, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<3>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Ratna - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>A copy of the Blevins & Helbock Post Office list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/