Guthrie County E911 Office
200 North 5th Street
Guthrie Center, IA 50115

Ph: (641) 747-8320
Fax: (641) 747-8916
envhlth@netins.net

Hrs: 8:00 to 4:30 (M-F)

Guthrie County Main > E911 Resources > Required Address Markers

How Address Numbers Are Assigned
January, 2006


When the E911 system was begun in the early 1990s, all rural sites received an address. Everyone within City limits already had addresses but rural residents had RFD Box numbers that provided no description of where the site was. The purpose of E911 addresses is to provide the residence with a number that helps locate that dwelling, business, or other site.

With the exception of Lake Diamondhead and Lake Panorama all addresses within the County fall between 1000 and 3599 and do follow a pattern. Addressing starts at the north end and west side of the County at 1000. Each mile has 100 numbers. Even numbers are on the east and south side of the roadway and odd numbers are on the west and north sides. So if you are in the sixth mile from the Greene County line you will be in the 1500 block (1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500 to give six miles). If you were ¾ of a mile south of the section line and on the west side of the road, then the last two numbers would be 75 (75% of the way through the section).

So the address would be 1575. In this way you can figure out the location of an address on the map. As an example, 1575 250th St would be ¾ of a mile into the 6th mile from the Audubon County line on the north side of the roadway. This will work for ANY address in the rural areas of the County except the two lakes.

It is also easy to locate the general area of either lake you are in. Lake Diamondhead has ONLY 8000 and 9000 addresses with the 8000 addresses on the west side of the Lake and the 9000 addresses on the east side of the Lake. The numbers start smaller at the north end and become larger as you go to the south end.
At Lake Panorama the numbers are also sequential. The 4000 and 5000 numbers are on the east side of the Lake with the smaller numbers to the north end. The 6000 and 7000 numbers are on the west side of the Lake with the smaller numbers to the north end. So Lake addresses are easily known and relatively easy to locate on a map.

Anyone needing an address in the rural areas should contact this office. We will measure and GPS the driveway location and then determine the address from the position within the township/section of that location. If you are within the City limits of any town in the County, you must see your City Clerk for an address assignment.

Other sites of interest on this topic:

Road names
Maps
Required Address Markers
Guthrie County Ordinance #9