Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Carter Lake, IA

Carter Lake is the only city in Iowa located west of the Missouri River, making it an Iowa exclave completely cut off from the rest of the state.

A flood in March 1877 redirected the course of the Missouri River about 1.25 miles to the southeast, and the remnant of the old river course, called Saratoga Bend, became an oxbow lake.

The oxbow lake was renamed Carter Lake in 1909 for Levi Carter, a prominent Omaha businessman, and the city later took the lake's name.

After extensive litigation between Iowa and Nebraska, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Nebraska v. Iowa (1892) that Carter Lake belonged to Iowa, because the river's sudden shift had not moved the state boundary; the Supreme Court revisited the two states' boundary dispute again in 1972.

Although Carter Lake was legally part of Council Bluffs and its residents paid city taxes, they lacked the basic city services enjoyed east of the river, so the community seceded from Council Bluffs in the 1920s hoping to become part of Omaha — but Omaha did not want to pay to extend sewers or water lines.

Carter Lake incorporated as its own city in the state of Iowa on July 2, 1930.

The city is surrounded on three sides by Omaha, Nebraska, and on the fourth side by the Missouri River, so there is no way to reach Carter Lake from Iowa without first passing through Nebraska.

Carter Lake wraps around the south and west sides of Eppley Airfield, the Omaha area's major airport.

As late as 1979, Carter Lake residents had a Nebraska ZIP code, picked up their mail at a nearby Omaha post office, and were not even listed in Iowa phone books.

The population of Carter Lake was 3,791 at the 2020 census.