Ames

The South Skunk River defines the setting of Ames — its broad floodplain and tree-lined banks bring a Midwestern river corridor into a city best known for its university. Iowa State University, founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, remains Ames’s central institution, giving the community a strong academic, research and sporting identity. The campus includes the Campanile, completed in 1898, and Reiman Gardens, a public botanical garden. Beyond the university, Ames is surrounded by the intensively farmed plains of central Iowa, while parks and trails follow the river and its tributaries. Explore nearby webcam locations that provide complementary perspectives on Ames and central Iowa.

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