Editing Coon Rapids, Iowa (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2011}}
Crocket Ribble and Jacob Cretsinger, residents of Carrollton (the county seat of Carroll County at the time), decided to try their hand in real estate. They purchased land along the Middle Raccoon River, built a saw and grist mill and went into business in 1864. Between the impact of the Civil War and later national panics, frontier settlement slowed down. However, the partners were able to establish a post office, named Coon Rapids; it soon became a stop for stagecoach service to Sioux City. Returning civil war veterans, William Minnich and his brother-in-law, Michael Shettler, saw potential in the hamlet. After purchasing land, they submitted a plat for the village of Coon Rapids and built what would become a store-hotel and home for the Shettler family. Minnich maintained his farm in adjoining Guthrie County. Between 1870 and 1880, the hamlet grew as former farmers became merchants and tradesmen and newcomers came to the area. In addition to the Mill, the town had several general stores offering an array of goods, a hardware store, implement dealer and the all-important real estate agent.

When the Chicago, St Paul and Milwaukee started to build a rail line about a half mile southwest of the hamlet, they established a rough and tumble camp for their workers, many of whom were accompanied by their families. The railroad project provided jobs and good money for local boys and newcomers, from which an economic boom began. Between 1880 and 1886, merchants in the village of Coon Rapids moved their buildings into what the railroad had platted as a town. Main street slowly became lined with business houses and homes and the area between the old and new towns slowly was transformed into a residential area. The town nearly doubled in population and the new commercial center by the railroad expanded with a variety of new and old businesses. In 1886, a tornado ripped across western Iowa, with Coon Rapids in its path. The eastern part of town was demolished and two people were killed. Help poured in from around the United States and the town rebuilt. However, the wooden frontier community was vulnerable to fire. Between 1887 and 1894, a multitude of fires occurred some caused by arson, others by lightning, and others the result of cinders from flues igniting dry, shingled roofs.

During the late 19th century, Coon Rapids developed a modern, fireproof commercial district made up of brick buildings, exhibiting a variety of Victorian facades. The town installed the amenities of urban life such as theater productions, roller skating, bowling, billiards, restaurants and a variety of shops and services, dray lines and livery barns. There were wooden sidewalks and street lights. A night watch and sheriff kept night time lawlessness in control and limited racing down Main street. Now there were community celebrations such as July 4 and Decoration Day for both town and rural folk. A town baseball team was another attraction. The town became a service center for a growing agricultural economy. Church and club celebrations also became part of community life and served to integrate community and countryside.

In response to the increased town and rural population and agricultural specialization, Coon Rapids saw the appearance of service industries to support the changing farm economy. There were carpenters specializing in farm building construction, well diggers, tiling and drainage concerns, dealers in cement and other types of fencing, a creamery to support the burgeoning dairy and poultry industry. By the early twentieth century, Coon Rapids was the dominant trading center between Perry and Manning. The downtown was filled with two and three storey brick buildings and offered an array of shops, services, and amenities such as an opera house, bowling alley, restaurants, a hotel and other amusements. From a simple market and trading point, Coon Rapids had become the economic, social, recreational and service center for the four county areas. It continued in this role despite the fall in farm values in the late teens and Great Depression of the 1930s.

The entrepreneurial tradition that marks Coon Rapids was expressed in the twentieth century by businesses that served the diverse agricultural economy of the area. These included major grain dealers who maintained elevators in town, lumber men, implement dealers, a creamery and related produce stations, extensive poultry operations, a stock yard and sale barn. Of particular importance to the town's 20th century life was the emergence of the hybrid corn business.

[[Industrial agriculture]] transformed the Midwest in the post WW II era. [[Economies of scale]] shifted centers of production, for example, the poultry business became concentrated in the southeastern United States, the size of farms increased, corporate rather than individual farming operations became the norm. For Coon Rapids this had varied impacts. Garst and Thomas Seed had expanded into an international concern by the mid-1950s offering local employment opportunities . Garst and Thomas expanded physically, literally taking over many of the downtown buildings in Coon Rapids, converting them to laboratory and office space. The city's residential areas grew during the late twentieth century, largely due to the employment offered by Garst and Thomas. Although the range and variety of downtown shops and businesses changed between 1950 and the farm crisis of the 1980s, the town maintained basic services such as a grocery store, hardware store, real estate and insurance agencies, banks, lumber yard, and agricultural service businesses. In September 1959, Coon Rapids played a role in promoting ''[[détente]]'' between the United States and the [[Soviet Union]], when area resident [[Roswell Garst]] hosted Soviet premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]] on [[Roswell and Elizabeth Garst Farmstead Historic District|his farm]].