Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Carter Lake is a city in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. A suburb of Omaha, Nebraska, it sits surrounding the south and west sides of the region's major airport, Eppley Airfield. It is separated from the rest of Iowa by the Missouri River, effectively making it an exclave. The population was 3,791 at the 2020 census.

Carter Lake is an example of the border irregularities of the United States, being the only city in Iowa located west of the Missouri River. A flood redirected the course of the river 1.25 mi to the southeast in March 1877. The remnants of the old river course, called Saratoga Bend, became an oxbow lake, named Carter Lake. Soon after the formation of the lake, the site became a flourishing recreational area. It included "a boathouse at the foot of Locust street, hotels and club houses were numerous and the lake was the scene of many a pleasant rowing and fishing party." After extensive litigation between Iowa and Nebraska, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in 1892 that Carter Lake belonged to Iowa in Nebraska v. Iowa, 143 U.S. 359 (1892).