Woodward, IA

Woodward is a Dallas County city at the north end of the High Trestle Trail. Its town story began with the railroad: the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway rebuilt its line through the area and built a depot, while an earlier proposed name, Colton, had to be changed because another town already used it. The rail corridor set Woodward's original street-and-depot pattern.

ATTRRichc80 / CC BY 3.0

Today the depot corridor carries a different kind of traffic. The High Trestle Trail runs 25 miles from Ankeny through Sheldahl, Slater, Madrid, and Woodward, crossing the Des Moines River on a half-mile, 13-story bridge between Madrid and Woodward. Woodward's trailhead is at Colton Park near Main and Railroad streets, and the city is also home to Woodward-Granger middle and high schools, with the elementary school in Granger. That same corridor now carries bikes and walkers, but its route still points back to the town's first connection to the outside world. In Woodward, the old railroad route remains the line connecting town, school, and regional recreation.