West Branch is a city in Cedar and Johnson counties in the U.S. state of Iowa.

[3] It is the birthplace of the only American president born in Iowa, Herbert Hoover.

[5] Most of Main Street is part of the West Branch Commercial Historic District.

Before the American Civil War, areas in and around West Branch were stops of the Underground Railroad.

Abolitionist John Brown once stayed at the Maxson farm east of West Branch.

[6][7] He also stayed at James Townsend's inn, the Traveler's Rest, in the winter of 1856.

[8] In 2008, archaeologists found evidence of unmarked graves in nearby North Liberty Cemetery while investigating an account of 17 escaped slaves who died before reaching Canada.

[12] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.19 square miles (8.26 km2), all land.

28.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

West Branch has been one of 36 communities in the Main Street Iowa program since being accepted on June 1, 2006.

[18] The program encourages downtown economic development through historic preservation.

The city's industrial park is home to a major distribution center of Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble.

[19] The industrial park is also home to Plastic Products, Wausau, Acciona Windpower North America and, Tidewater Direct.

As of November 2007, construction was completed on Acciona Energía's wind turbine generator engineering and assembly plant, the first in North America.

The Gruwell and Crew General Store is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.