Baxter, IA

Baxter’s first townsite did not stay put: Independence Center had a schoolhouse by 1870, then followed the Chicago Great Western station a mile and a half away in 1883. Nearly every building moved, and the old location is still called Old Baxter. The Jasper County city’s public library has an unusual arrangement with Baxter Community Schools: one collection and one checkout system serve students and residents, a setup the library counts among only ten such collaborations in Iowa. Baxter sits northeast of Des Moines with a railroad-shaped map and a library that literally shares the school’s shelves.