About our community

 

 

Ames is a college town located on the first transcontinental railway and the first transcontinental highway. It is centered in a state rich in agriculture and Midwestern friendliness. The population of Ames is about 50,000 which includes about 26,000 university students. In addition to the university, Ames serves as a regional medical center. The main offices of the State Department of Transportation, the National Animal Disease Laboratory, the Ames Laboratory - a materials testing lab, a 3-M plant, a Sauer-Sundstrand plant, and Engineering Animation Inc. are the other major employers. The quality of life is high. It was characterized by the SWA Group, who did a community plan for Ames three years ago, as a cluster of villages each with a discreet character, image, and boundaries. The quality of public education is high; graduates of Ames schools rank among the top in the nation. In fact, Ames is ranked in second place among micropolitan areas in �The new rating guide to life in Americas small cities� (Kevin Heubusch, Second ed., 1997, Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY.). Ames is noted for its economical stability, high average income, high average of educational achievement, low crime rate, various cultural events along with the university, and its fine mass transit system by which Ames achieved All-American City status.

 

 

In addition, Ames has an extensive system of community services including a top notch public library, a community art center, a large, well-programmed park and recreation department, the Wednesday and Saturday farmers market, and a full calendar of cultural events sponsored by both the university and community. Ames is three and a half hours from Minneapolis , three hours from Kansas City and Omaha , and, six hours from Chicago and eight hours from St. Louis . In short, it is a great small town in which to live and work.

 

 

For more information, click the following links:

 

 

City of Ames
State of Iowa
Ames Electronic Village
The Tribune
Weather Forecast