Ankeny, IA

Ankeny’s John Deere plant occupies ground transformed by World War II. The federal government established an ammunition plant there in 1942, and John Deere purchased the property in October 1947. Corn-picker production began in February 1948 with 570 employees, starting the site’s long evolution into John Deere Des Moines Works. The industrial turn followed a much smaller beginning. John and Sarah Ankeny founded a farming community in 1875, passenger rail service arrived in July 1880, and the town incorporated in 1903. A series of fires from 1932 through 1940 nearly destroyed Uptown’s business blocks. Their reconstruction and the ordnance plant’s arrival brought rebuilt commercial blocks and a new manufacturing economy into the same decade. Two districts now make Ankeny’s separate growth eras easy to read.

ATTRAnkeny High School / Public domain

Uptown clusters around Southwest Third Street in the older rail-town center, where the High Trestle Trail passes storefronts and public gathering spaces. Prairie Trail developed from roughly 1,000 acres of former Iowa State University research land that the city acquired in 2003 and sold for mixed-use development in 2005. Its housing, shops, offices, and civic spaces form a newer center southwest of Uptown. The District at Prairie Trail is now a major commercial destination. A 2024 special census counted 76,207 residents. That scale is far removed from the 445 residents recorded in 1910. The city’s growth is visible through places with distinct origins: a reconstructed historic core, a repurposed research property, industrial land, and subdivisions extending toward Interstate 35.

ATTRAshton B Crew / CC BY-SA 3.0

Des Moines Area Community College adds another daily destination on Ankeny’s south side. DMACC purchased its 240-acre campus site in 1967, when the surrounding Iowa State land was still used for agricultural research. In 2026, the Ankeny campus served over 15,000 full- and part-time students. Its offerings range from transfer coursework to engineering, manufacturing, and skilled-trades programs, and its student center, theater, and recreation facilities bring activity beyond class hours. The campus and John Deere plant give the city substantial educational and industrial functions alongside its residential role in the Des Moines metropolitan area. Located on the south and east sides, they distribute weekday activity beyond Uptown and Prairie Trail. The Ankeny Market & Pavilion, known as AMP, brings those layers together in Uptown.

ATTRUser:IrvingPlNYC / CC BY-SA 3.0

The 3.1-acre park has two open-air pavilions and serves as a trailhead for the High Trestle Trail. A farmers market uses the site during its season, and the 2026 Beats & Eats series scheduled food trucks and live music there on selected summer Thursdays. The trail’s Uptown segment keeps the pavilions connected to the older commercial blocks. Seasonal markets and music use a site that residents can reach from both the trail and neighborhood streets. An August 8-9 model-railroad display at Kirkendall Public Library gives the city’s rail history a smaller current setting, while Saturday yoga continues at the Ankeny Bandshell through August 29. From AMP, a rider can continue along the converted rail corridor through Uptown, following a public path through the part of Ankeny where passenger trains, rebuilt storefronts, and wartime industry successively changed the town.