Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Ayrshire, IA

Ayrshire is a small city in Palo Alto County, Iowa, that began in October 1882 when the Des Moines and Fort Dodge Railroad reached the site and built a depot the following month on an 80-acre railroad townsite.

Ayrshire was incorporated on September 20, 1895.

The 2020 census counted 133 people living in 70 households in Ayrshire, down from a peak of 391 people in 1940.

Ayrshire drew national attention in 1972 when nineteen-year-old Jody Smith was elected mayor, making him the youngest mayor in America at the time.

At its peak Ayrshire had two banks, two grocery stores, a blacksmith shop, a livery stable, a creamery, a hotel, at least two barber shops, four churches, five gas stations, a grain elevator, two cafes, a locker plant, a pharmacy, a lumber yard, and two beer halls.

Ayrshire once had both a Catholic high school, which closed in 1947, and a public school, which closed in the spring of 1982; the public school's mascot was the Ayrshire Beavers.

The rail line through Ayrshire was abandoned and torn up in the 1980s.

Ayrshire celebrated its Quasquicentennial - 125 years - in 2007.

Ayrshire is served today by the Ruthven-Ayrshire Community School District, formed when the Ayrshire district merged into Ruthven-Ayrshire on July 1, 1983.

Ayrshire sits in Palo Alto County, which was named for the Battle of Palo Alto, the first major battle of the Mexican-American War.