Northwood, the Worth County Seat, is located four miles from the Iowa-Minnesota border and a short distance from Interstate 35. Its exceptionally wide streets seem to invite people into the community, which is home to just over 2,000 people. Perhaps one of the many unique features of Northwood is best described by a Des Moines Register newspaper writer:
“At Northwood, the Shell Rock executes a graceful horseshoe bend to touch the city’s business district. Here is one of the pleasantest park sites in Iowa. Anyone who strolls down past the store fronts of Northwood may step down an almost unnoticed stairway. Only an instant ago, sweltering in the hot sun, the stroller now finds himself in a river encircled park area radiant with water rushing over a dam almost secluded in the broken shadows of oaks, ash and evergreen. This unusual park area contains a swimming pool, shelter house, band stand and ball diamond. Many communities like to boast about their parks, but this one is a little different from all others.”