Gilbert, IA

Gilbert is a Story County city in the Ames metro. The 2020 census counted 1,211 residents. The town was named for Hezekiah Gilbert, who owned the land it was built on, and Iowa records list the city's incorporation in 1882. Its local map is compact but well supplied: Main Street, the school campus, and three community parks give Gilbert a clear center inside the surrounding farm country. The library and historical society meet on Main Street, keeping a civic thread in the park-and-school map.

Upstill Park sits beside the elementary school and has soccer fields, baseball and softball diamonds, batting cages, a shelter, and a trail, while Lions Park runs along the main east-west drive and Banford Park fills a south-side residential area. Gilbert Community School District serves the area, so school and parks overlap in everyday routines. Gilbert's local scoop is a small Ames-area city where three parks, a school-centered ballfield complex, and a landowner's name define the town map.