CHEROKEE, a city of north-western Iowa, U.S.A., on the west bank of the Little Sioux river, 6om. E.N.E. of Sioux city; the county seat of Cherokee county. It is a division point on the Illinois Central railroad. The population in 1930 was 6,443. Cherokee is the trade centre for a rich farming, dairying, and stock-raising country. A State hospital for the insane, accom modating 1,250 patients, is located here.
The first log house in the county was built in 1866, 4m. S. of the city, by Robert Perry, who soon thereafter met a colony of emigrants from Milford (Mass.), and persuaded them to settle near by. Two black walnut logs from their first stockade are preserved as a historic relic ; and the mill-stones from the first mill have been set up as a monument. When the railway reached the county (1871) the present town-site was located, about a mile from the old town. Just south of the city is Pilot Rock, a huge glacial boulder, 4o x 6oft., which was a well-known landmark in the days of migration westward.