Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Perry, IA

Perry is a city in Dallas County, Iowa, laid out as a town in 1869 along the North Raccoon River and named for Col. Perry of Keokuk, one of the railroad's owners at the time.

Perry grew up as a Milwaukee Road railroad town, and its rail heritage is preserved in its historic depot and the Carnegie Library Museum, housed in a 1904 Carnegie library building.

The 2020 census counted 7,836 residents in Perry, living in 2,901 households.

Perry is one of Iowa's most diverse small cities: 37 percent of residents were Hispanic or Latino in the 2020 census, up from about 25 percent in 2000, a diversity built by generations of meatpacking workers and their families.

Meatpacking anchored Perry's economy from the 1950s until Tyson Foods closed its pork plant in June 2024, a shutdown that eliminated roughly 1,300 jobs, about 800 of them held by Perry residents.

Perry's landmark is the Hotel Pattee, a 1913 railroad hotel restored in the 1990s with about $12 million from hometown philanthropist Roberta Green Ahmanson; each of its 40 guest rooms is uniquely decorated around a theme from Iowa and Perry history.

The Raccoon River Valley Trail runs through Perry, and every year since 1978 cyclists have ridden the BRR — the 24-mile Bicycle Ride to Rippey — starting in front of the Hotel Pattee, regardless of the weather.

Pattee Park is Perry's largest park, with ball fields, a skateboard park, tennis courts, a dog park, and the city band shell.

Perry is served by the Perry Community School District and by St. Patrick School, a Catholic school dedicated on February 21, 1921.

Perry was the hometown of V. T. Hamlin, creator of the Alley Oop comic strip, and of Gertrude Mary Cox, one of America's most influential statisticians.