Inwood, IA

Inwood is a Lyon County city in the northwest corner of Iowa, surrounded by farm country near the South Dakota line. The 2020 census counted 928 residents. West Lyon Community School District is headquartered in town and serves a rural area that includes Inwood, Alvord, Larchwood, Lester, and nearby farms. The Inwood Public Library, city utilities, churches, and the outdoor aquatic center give the community a set of services that is easy to reach without leaving town. Larger shopping and entertainment trips run toward Sioux Falls and the regional towns across northwest Iowa.

West Lyon formed in 1960, and the district's earlier Inwood FFA chapter dates to 1929, tying the school to the area's farm economy. Inwood's current life still follows that same overlap of classrooms, fields, and long straight roads, with school activities and church groups doing much of the organizing. The city has built a water park and other recreation around the existing civic core, while lakes and nature areas sit within a short drive. Inwood is a small northwest Iowa school town whose local institutions do the connecting work between the farms and the larger regional centers.