Editing Clarinda, Iowa (section)

==History==
Clarinda was founded in 1851, and incorporated on December 8, 1866. Many stories are told of such notables as [[Jesse James]] frequently passing through.

The town is named for Clarinda Buck, who according to legend carried water to the surveyors while Page County was first being surveyed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iowacounties.org/Corporate%20Opportunities/About%20Us/AboutCoGov/County%20Pages/Page.htm |title=Page County |access-date=2009-02-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508151811/http://www.iowacounties.org/Corporate%20Opportunities/About%20Us/AboutCoGov/County%20Pages/Page.htm |archive-date=2009-05-08 }}</ref>

The best known national firm in Clarinda for many decades was Berry's Seed Company, a mail order farm seed distribution business founded in 1885 at Clarinda by A. A. Berry. Berry's Seed Company diversified into retail stores in the 1950s, but the stores were sold off over the following decade, and today the company, known as Berry's Garden Center, operates from its one remaining retail outlet in [[Danville, Illinois]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Berry's Garden Center - Home |url=http://www.berrysgarden.com/ |access-date=2023-04-05 |website=www.berrysgarden.com}}</ref>

In 1943, during [[World War II]], an [[internment camp]] designed for 3,000 [[prisoners of war]] with sixty barracks and a 150-bed hospital was built in Clarinda. German prisoners were the first to arrive at Camp Clarinda, followed in 1945 by Italian and Japanese POWs.<ref>Sullivan, Ken. - "POW camps - Thousands of German prisoners held during war in Iowa, Midwest". - ''[[The Gazette (Cedar Rapids)|The Gazette]]''. - December 16, 2001. | - Kilen, Mike. - "When War Marched Into Iowa". - ''[[Des Moines Register]]''. - September 23, 2007.</ref>

The southeast area of Clarinda was once dubbed "Gun Town" and remains known by that name today. A noted author wrote, "In the twenties and thirties, Clarinda seemed to be two separate towns: Guntown and Uptown. In the middle of the square was, and remains, the courthouse. The four blocks surrounding the square are filled with businesses. Guntown was a town all its own. The 700 block of East Garfield was a solid block of businesses--grocery stores, barber, a Chinese restaurant, another restaurant on a corner, a rug factory, a large grocery, the Swifts packing plant, and railroad tracks with freight depot and roundhouse to turn trains around."<ref>Juanita Seeley. "Gun Town, My Hometown."</ref>