24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Urbandale, IA

Urbandale was incorporated as a city on April 16, 1917, after voters approved incorporation by a vote of 49 to zero.

Urbandale began as a streetcar suburb of Des Moines - it was the end of the 'Urbandale Line,' and streetcar service ran until 1951; many of today's DART bus routes still follow the old streetcar paths.

In its early days Urbandale also had four coal mines, with shafts near what are now Karen Acres Elementary School, Merle Hay Road, and 104th Street and Meredith Drive; the last mine, the Beck Mine, closed in 1947.

Urbandale grew from just 298 residents in 1920 to 45,580 at the 2020 census, making it the 12th largest city in Iowa.

The city spans Polk and Dallas counties, and since 1990 it has expanded westward into Dallas County, which grew by more than 50% between 2010 and 2020 - the fastest growth of any Iowa county.

Urbandale is home to Living History Farms, the open-air museum where Pope John Paul II spoke to a crowd estimated at 350,000 people on October 4, 1979.

Urbandale is also home to Buccaneer Arena, home ice of the Des Moines Buccaneers hockey team.

Urbandale features about 850 acres of parks and 33 miles of recreational trails that connect into the wider Des Moines trail network.

The 2010 census counted 39,463 people in 15,596 households in Urbandale.

The name Urbandale came from a 1907 plat laid out by the streetcar line's owners, blending 'urban' with 'dale' for the new suburb.