RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Welcome to Van ...

Van is located in Polk County<1>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Van, you might consider that their post office opened in 1899.

Van is 1,040 feet [317 m] above sea level.<2>.

Time Zone: Van lies in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Code for Van: 417

Communities Also Named Van ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 14 communities that are also named Van - they are located in Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio (2), Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Van.

Communities near Van ...

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

  • Bolivar
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Willard
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Buffalo
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Fair Grove
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Walnut Grove
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Pleasant Hope
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Fair Play
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Morrisville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Halfway
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Halfway is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halfway
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 179 people
  • Louisburg
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Louisburg is located in Dallas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Louisburg
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 116 people

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 Van. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Van.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Van. 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 Van.

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

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Van ...

Looking for more information about Van? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

While we are unaware of a Tourism page that is specific to Van, there are neighboring communities that do have Tourism pages. A map of those communities can be found with our TripAdvisor Page for Van.

Adding Van to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Van in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Van was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<4>

From that list, the Van post office opened in 1899. The Van post office closed in 1934.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Van.

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of Missouri's counties, including Polk, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Van - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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/