Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Adair, IA

Adair is a city straddling Adair and Guthrie counties in west-central Iowa — this dataset files it under Adair County — about 50 miles west of Des Moines, just off Interstate 80.

Before it had its present name, the site was known as Summit Cut, because the Rock Island Railroad, built through the area in 1868, crossed the ridge there that forms the watershed divide between the Missouri River and Mississippi River drainages.

Adair was platted and incorporated on August 20, 1872, and named after General John Adair, a general in the War of 1812 who later became the eighth governor of Kentucky.

Less than a year after it became a town, on July 21, 1873, Adair was the scene of the first successful train robbery in the American West, when Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang derailed the Rock Island Express southwest of town and escaped with about $3,000 — the derailment killed the train's engineer.

The gang had been tipped off about a large gold shipment from Cheyenne, but the shipment was delayed, so their take was far smaller than they had expected.

Adair is recognizable to Interstate 80 travelers by its tall yellow 'smiley-face' water tower, and its road sign greets visitors with 'Welcome to Adair; it'll make you smile' — some local businesses even build the smiley-face tower into their logos.

Adair's official mottoes are 'Home of the Bombers' and 'It'll make you smile!'

A rare F5 tornado occurred near Adair on June 27, 1953, killing one person and injuring two others, although the worst damage fell closer to the neighboring town of Anita.

The 2020 census counted 791 people in Adair in 361 households, almost unchanged from 781 people in 2010.

Adair's population peaked at 952 in the 1910 census, and the town has remained a community of fewer than 1,000 people ever since.