Editing Adair, Iowa (section)

==History==
[[File:Adair, Iowa City Hall.jpg|thumb|left|Adair City Hall (2010)]]
The [[Rock Island Railroad]] was built through the area in 1868, which led to the area being known as Summit Cut. This was in reference to the ridge that forms the watershed divide between the [[Missouri River|Missouri]] and [[Mississippi River|Mississippi rivers]]. The town officially became known as Adair on August 20, 1872, when it was incorporated with the county.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hX4UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA129 | title=History of Adair County, Iowa, and Its People, Volume 1 | publisher=Pioneer Publishing Company | author=Kilburn, Lucian Moody | year=1915 | pages=129}}</ref>  The town is named after [[General]] [[John Adair]], a general in the [[War of 1812]] who later became the [[List of governors of Kentucky|eighth governor]] of [[Kentucky]]. Adair was the scene of the first successful train robbery in the [[American West]] when on July 21, 1873, the [[James-Younger Gang]] (led by [[Jesse James]]) took US $3,000 from the Rock Island Express after derailing it southwest of the town. The derailment killed the engineer.

A rare [[Tornado outbreak of June 27, 1953|F5 tornado]] occurred near this town on June 27, 1953, although the damage occurred closer to the town of [[Anita, Iowa|Anita]]. One person was killed and two others were injured.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grazulis |first1=Thomas P. |author-link1=Thomas P. Grazulis |title=Significant Tornadoes 1680–1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events |date=July 1993 |publisher=The Tornado Project of Environmental Films |location=[[St. Johnsbury, Vermont]] |isbn=1-879362-03-1 |page=975 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Iowa F5 |url=http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/19530627.19.20 |website=Tornado History Project |publisher=Storm Prediction Center |access-date=July 4, 2020 |archive-date=July 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200704041655/http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/19530627.19.20 |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>{{cite report |title=Iowa Event Report: F5 Tornado |url=https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=10017052 |website=National Weather Service |publisher=National Centers for Environmental Information |access-date=July 4, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Grazulis|first=Thomas P. |author-link=Thomas P. Grazulis |title=F5-F6 Tornadoes|publisher=The Tornado Project|year=2001 |location=St. Johnsbury, VT }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=All F5/EF5 Tornadoes |url=http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/F5/table |website=Tornado History Project |publisher=Storm Prediction Center |access-date=July 4, 2020 |archive-date=July 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200704062729/http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/F5/table |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

Adair is recognizable from [[Interstate 80 in Iowa|Interstate 80]] by its tall yellow "smiley-face" water tower. Its roadsign warmly greets visitors with, "Welcome to Adair; it'll make you smile".  Some of the local businesses incorporate the smiley-face tower image into their company logos.
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Adair is mentioned in the 2013 Stephen King novel ''[[Doctor Sleep (novel)|Doctor Sleep]]''.

In February 2024, Adair Police Chief Brad Wendt was convicted on 11 of 15 federal charges, for conspiring to make false statements to the federal [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives]] and illegal possession of a machine gun. "Authorities say he bought machine guns for the police department, then sold them for an almost $80,000 personal profit. Trial evidence showed he bought machine guns for his gun store, including a .50-caliber machine gun he mounted to his own armored Humvee".<ref>Jack Dura, "Jury convicts Iowa police chief of lying to feds to acquire machine guns", Associated Press, February 15, 2024.</ref>