West Branch

West Branch is a small city of about 2500 people located in Cedar and Johnson Counties and is part of the greater Iowa City metro area. President Herbert Hoover was born in West Branch, and the community welcomes tourists visiting the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site with a lovingly maintained town that has earned them the Main Street designation since 2006! Residents enjoy the historic small town feel while still having easy access to other opportunities in the nearby Iowa City/Cedar Rapids corridor.

West Branch residents enjoy several parks with a variety of amenities including Cubby Park that has a walking trail, and Wapsi Creek Park, which has a playground and parking for the Hoover Nature Trail, a developing rail-trail that connects sixteen communities including West Branch. The town is rated somewhat walkable and bikeable, and some errands can be accomplished on foot, although most residents use a car. The average one-way commute for West Branch residents is 20.7 minutes, shorter than the 26.4 national average.

West Branch is proud to be a Main Street Community, which denotes exceptional civic engagement and a commitment to development and historic preservation. The town celebrates its unique history while maintaining a firm view toward the future in many ways, and one way they keep the lines of communication open is with their newspaper, the West Branch Times, which has been in continuous publication since 1875. The town is served by the West Branch Community School District.

When European settlers first came to West Branch, they were predominantly Quakers from Ohio, and they made the area part of the Underground Railroad that assisted people escaping slavery in the southern states. After the railroad was built, the town began to grow. President Herbert Hoover was born in West Branch in 1874, and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum is in West Branch, making the town a destination for American History buffs and presidential scholars.