Moving To Mystic, Iowa? (Des Moines, Centerville: for sale, insurance, houses)

[Tiger One]

We are hopefully going to view a house for sale in Mystic this weekend. We are currently living in Indiana, close to Chicago.

If anyone has any information on Mystic, I would appreciate it, especially info on the high school, as we have 1 child who will be a freshman this Fall. From what I was told, the high school that services Mystic is in Centerville.

[metro223]

I do believe your child will be going to high school in Centerville if you buy the house in Mystic. All of the towns in that area are relatively small but I would imagine Centerville will have just about everything you will basically need. I haven't heard much about how schools are down there - but I'm sure it's nothing too scary.

The neat thing about living in or around Mystic will be your close proximity to Rathbun Lake which will offer some extra recreational activities. If you do end up moving there and are looking for some stuff to do on the weekend or want to take a short day trip - Des Moines is 3 counties north via state route 5.

Good luck!

[El Rhino]

Fact: There was a band on Motown from Mystic. I forgot their name, but it was early 80's era Motown.

[SharpHawkeye]

Finally, a discussion where being from Centerville is useful!

Mystic is OK. It's just kind of a poor old boomtown that has deteriorated over the years. It's a little more run-down than Centerville, but not too bad. No real stores, just a bar "The Mystique/Coal Miner's Inn", a dinky little park, and an elementary school. They've got some civic minded people there in recent years who've done a lot to clean it up. Plus, they have the Mystic Goat Races...

If I had my choice, I would rather live in Centerville proper, or in the country between Centerville and Mystic (like two friends of mine). But Mystic is fine.

CHS is not a bad high school at all. I graduated from there and I turned out fine. Two big new additions lately, so good physical facilities. Good teaching staff, too. Pretty well covered in the extra-curricular field (the big sports, drama, speech, newspaper/yearbook). Highly rated band. Some co-courses/early degree programs with the local community college.

Some shortcomings: poor special ed. program, lack of AP courses, only one language offered, lack of diversity (students and staff), some generational poverty going on--fairly high dropout rate.

I hope your search goes well! Please message here or feel free to PM me if you have any more questions.

[Deselminator]

A good friend of mine is from Mystic, and he refers to it as Mistake. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[Tiger One]

HUMM, you all got me thinking. We did not make it to see the house, because my mother ended up in the hospitol. She is still fragile, and we are staying put for the next 2-3 weeks. The house in Mystic is still for sale, and we plan on getting over there to view it, as soon as we can. This house in Mystic is EXACTLY what we are looking for.
Thanks for the heads up on the schools. Our youngest daughter is an "Extra-Gifted" child. She has skipped a grade, and has been straight A+ since she started school at age 3. She is the top ranked student at her current school.
Where we are at, doesn't offer really anything for the gifted kids. Not only that, but the graduation rate for the high school she would be attending, is absolutely horrible. Last year the graduation rate was 36%, and it will be even lower this year. Even the best schools around here, including the private ones, have a graduation rate around 80% or a little higher.

Thanks for all the info, everyone !!!

[therrboomer]

The Mystic area at one time had coal mines. How many and exactly where may be lost in history. What I do know is the railroad had (still does??) sink hole problems that were alleged to be caused by the mines.

[Tiger One]

OH MY ! SINKHOLES??? That does not sound very good.

On the other hand, my grandfather was a coal miner in Pennsylvania, who also had a small farm. I used to love to go there as a kid, coal residue(bony dumps) piles and all. It was very primitive in that area of Pennsylvania, when I was small. I remember when there was no indoor bathroom, no paved roads, etc. I loved walking down the dirt road to Hricks, which was the general store.

My husband, raised as a city boy, had a potato farm in Wisconsin for many years.

[Tiger One]

I got another question about Mystic. What kind of animal ordinances do they have there? Where we are at, they have got so ridiculous, they have even banned many pet birds ! It is illegal here to have pidgeons, dove's, parrots,etc. We are not even allowed to have a rabbit.
FTR, we have a Chocolate Lab, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier(totally deaf), 2 Persian cats, and a Duck. All of our pets have their vaccinations and are liscenced for the community we are currently living in, even the Duck.

[SharpHawkeye]

I've never heard of sinkholes being a problem for people's houses or streets or anything like that. The railroad, maybe, since it cuts through the rural areas and much closer to the old mines...but I've never even heard that. Some of the out-of-town rural houses are on or near old coal-mine property...which makes for some pretty neat woody hills and ravines.

The Centerville district has a very high graduation rate, around 90%, I believe. There isn't much of a TAG program in the high school, unfortunately. But having the Indian Hills campus in town is nice for letting students get a jump on college classes. I understand they're doing several career programs between the HS and IHCC and some senior year sponsored college classes.

As far as animals go, I think Mystic (and the rural parts) really don't have many regulations. There has been a big push for "dangerous animal insurance" ordinances in the county lately, so pit bulls and such might be out. Lots of kids in the area do 4H/FFA, so there's all kinds of animals being kept.