Lamoni, Iowa

Lamoni is a city in Decatur County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,969 at the time of the 2020 Census. Lamoni is the home of Graceland University, affiliated with the Community of Christ, a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement. The city was the church's headquarters from 1880 to 1920, after which it moved to Independence, Missouri.

The town is host to KNSL, a public radio station which rebroadcasts programming from Iowa Public Radio, National Public Radio, and adult album alternative music to South Central Iowa and North Central Missouri.

The Lamoni area was first settled in 1834 to 1840 by people who thought they were settling in slave-owning Missouri. It was only after the Sullivan Line separating Missouri and Iowa was formally surveyed when Iowa became a state in 1846 that they realized they were in non-slave-owning Iowa.

In 1851, refugees from the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 sought to settle the area and form the community of New Buda (named for a neighborhood of Budapest). Their efforts did not result in a significant settlement.

In 1870, Joseph Smith III authorized the Order of Enoch to purchase over 3,000 acres (12 km²) to form a community of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). Smith lived in Liberty Hall, now a museum.

The city was named after Lamoni, a king mentioned in the Book of Mormon.

Lamoni, just north of the Missouri border, was chosen because of its good farmland and because it is about 100 miles north of Temple Lot, an important location in church teachings. The Mormons were evicted from Temple Lot and Missouri in the 1838 Mormon War.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, led by Brigham Young, passed through the community in 1846, staying at nearby Garden Grove, Iowa, while en route from Nauvoo, Illinois (where they had settled after being forced to leave Missouri), to the Salt Lake Valley.