Get an ADT-Monitored Home Security System in Fort Dodge, Iowa

Fort Dodge is a city in and the county chair of Webster County, Iowa, United States, along the Des Moines River. The population was 24,871 in the 2020 census, a fall from 25,136 in 2000. Fort Dodge is a major commercial center for North Central and Northwest Iowa. It is located upon U.S. Routes 20 and 169.

Fort Dodge traces its beginnings to 1850 in the same way as E Company of the 6th Infantry were sent from Fort Snelling to erect and garrison a fort at the junction of the Des Moines River and Lizard Creek. It was originally named Fort Clarke but was renamed Fort Dodge because there was complementary fort later the similar name in Texas. It was named after Henry Dodge, a governor of Wisconsin Territory (which had included Iowa until Iowa became a let in in 1846). The fort was forlorn by the Army in 1853.

The next year William Willams, a civilian storekeeper in Fort Dodge, purchased the estate and buildings of the old-fashioned fort. The town of Fort Dodge was founded in 1869. In 1872 the long and continuing history of gypsum production in Iowa started behind George Ringland, Webb Vincent, and Stillman T. Meservey formed the Fort Dodge Plaster Mills to mine, grind, and prepare gypsum for trailer use. The Company constructed the first gypsum mill west of the Mississippi River, at the head of what is now known as Gypsum Creek.