Editing Des Moines, Iowa (section)

==History==
===Etymology===
Des Moines takes its name from Fort Des Moines (1843–46), which was named for the [[Des Moines River]]. This was adopted from the name given by [[French colonization of the Americas|French colonists]]. ''Des Moines'' ({{IPA|fr|de mwan|pron|DesMoines1.ogg}}; formerly {{IPA|fr|de mwɛn|}}) translates literally to either "from the monks" or "of the monks".

One popular interpretation of "Des Moines" concludes that it refers to a group of French [[Trappists|Trappist monks]], who in the 17th century lived in huts built on top of what is now known as the ancient [[Monks Mound]] at [[Cahokia]], the major center of [[Mississippian culture]], which developed in what is present-day Illinois, east of the Mississippi River and the city of [[St. Louis]]. This was some {{convert|200|mi|km}} from the Des Moines River.<ref>"[http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030914/ENT/70323017 Defining 'Des Moines']. {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120723212014/http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030914/ENT/70323017 |date=July 23, 2012 }}". ''Des Moines Register''. September 14, 2003.</ref>

===Prehistoric inhabitants of early Des Moines===
[[File:Indians of Des Moines.png|thumb|left|Map of prehistoric and historic American Indian sites in downtown Des Moines<ref>Modified from ''Newsletter of the [[Iowa Archeological Society]]'' 58(1):8</ref>]]
Based on archaeological evidence, the junction of the [[Des Moines River|Des Moines]] and [[Raccoon River]]s has attracted humans for at least 7,000 years. Several prehistoric occupation areas have been identified by archaeologists in [[downtown Des Moines]]. Discovered in December 2010, the "[[Palace Site|Palace]]" is an expansive 7,000-year-old site found during excavations prior to construction of the new wastewater treatment plant in southeast Des Moines. It contains well-preserved house deposits and numerous graves. More than 6,000 artifacts were found at this site. State of Iowa archaeologist John Doershuk was assisted by [[University of Iowa]] archaeologists at this dig.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Heldt, Diane |date=August 18, 2011 |title=UI archaeologists find 7,000-year-old site in Des Moines: More than 6,000 artifacts were found |work=The Gazette |location=Cedar Rapids, Iowa |url=http://thegazette.com/2011/08/18/ui-archaeologists-find-7000-year-old-site-in-des-moines/ |url-status=live |access-date=October 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110925095341/http://thegazette.com/2011/08/18/ui-archaeologists-find-7000-year-old-site-in-des-moines/ |archive-date=September 25, 2011}}</ref>

At least three villages, dating from about AD 1300 to 1700, stood in or near what developed later as downtown Des Moines. In addition, 15 to 18 prehistoric [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] mounds were observed in the area by early settlers. All have been destroyed during development of the city.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schoen, Christopher M. |year=2005 |title=A Point of Land and Prehistoric Peoples |journal=Iowa Heritage Illustrated |volume=86 |issue=1 |pages=8–9 |doi=10.17077/1088-5943.1178 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="DMIndians">{{Cite journal |last=Whittaker |first=William E. |year=2008 |title=Prehistoric and Historic Indians in Downtown Des Moines |journal=Newsletter of the Iowa Archeological Society |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=8–10}}</ref>

===Origin of Fort Des Moines===
{{For timeline}}
Des Moines traces its origins to May 1843, when Captain [[James Allen (Army engineer)|James Allen]] supervised the construction of a fort on the site where the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers merge. Allen wanted to use the name Fort Raccoon; however, the [[U.S. War Department]] preferred Fort Des Moines. The fort was built to control the [[Sauk people|Sauk]] and [[Meskwaki]]  peoples, whom the government had moved to the area from their traditional lands in eastern Iowa. The fort was abandoned in 1846 after the Sauk and Meskwaki were removed from the state and shifted to the Indian Territory.<ref name="Forts">{{Cite book |last1=Schoen |first1=Christopher M. |url=http://uipress.uiowa.edu/books/2009-fall/whittaker.htm |title=Frontier Forts of Iowa: Indians, Traders, and Soldiers, 1682–1862 |last2=W.E. Whittaker |last3=K.E.M. Gourley |publisher=University of Iowa Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-58729-831-8 |editor-last=William E. Whittaker |location=Iowa City |pages=161–177 |chapter=Fort Des Moines No. 2, 1843–1846 |access-date=August 31, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090805200748/http://www.uipress.uiowa.edu/books/2009-fall/whittaker.htm |archive-date=August 5, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Sauk and Meskwaki did not fare well in Des Moines. The illegal whiskey trade, combined with the destruction of traditional lifeways, led to severe problems for their society. One newspaper reported:
<blockquote>"It is a fact that the location of Fort Des Moines among the Sac and Fox Indians (under its present commander) for the last two years, had corrupted them more and lowered them deeper in the scale of vice and degradation, than all their intercourse with the whites for the ten years previous".<ref name="Forts" /></blockquote>After official [[Indian Removal|removal]], the Meskwaki continued to return to Des Moines until around 1857.<ref name="DMIndians" />

Archaeological excavations have shown that many fort-related features survived under what is now [[Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway (Des Moines)|Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway]] and First Street.<ref name="Forts" /><ref>Mather, David and Ginalie Swaim (2005) "The Heart of the Best Part: Fort Des Moines No. 2 and the Archaeology of a City", ''Iowa Heritage Illustrated'' 86(1):12–21.</ref> Soldiers stationed at Fort Des Moines opened the first coal mines in the area, mining coal from the riverbank for the fort's blacksmith.<ref>James H. Lees, "History of Coal Mining in Iowa", Chapter III of [https://books.google.com/books?id=1BUMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA566 ''Annual Report, 1908'']. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117093152/https://books.google.com/books?id=1BUMAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA415&pg=PA566 |date=January 17, 2016 }}. Iowa Geological Survey. 1909. p. 566.</ref>

===Early settlement===
[[File:Birds Run Site Des Moines.jpg|thumb|upright|Excavation of the prehistoric component of the Bird's Run Site in Des Moines]]
[[File:Flood at Fort Des Moines in 1851 - History of Iowa.jpg|thumb|Flood of Des Moines, 1851]]

Settlers occupied the abandoned fort and nearby areas. On May 25, 1846, the state legislature designated Fort Des Moines as the seat of Polk County. Arozina Perkins, a school teacher who spent the winter of 1850–1851 in the town of Fort Des Moines, was not favorably impressed:

<blockquote>This is one of the strangest looking "cities" I ever saw... This town is at the juncture of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. It is mostly a level prairie with a few swells or hills around it. We have a court house of "brick" and one church, a plain, framed building belonging to the Methodists. There are two taverns here, one of which has a most important little bell that rings together some fifty boarders. I cannot tell you how many dwellings there are, for I have not counted them; some are of logs, some of brick, some framed, and some are the remains of the old [[dragoon]] houses... The people support two papers and there are several dry goods shops. I have been into but four of them... Society is as varied as the buildings are. There are people from nearly every state, and Dutch, Swedes, etc.<ref>Perkins, Arozina, 1851 letter in: (1984) "Teaching in Fort Des Moines, Iowa: November 13, 1850 to March 21, 1851." In ''Women Teachers on the Frontier,'' edited by P. W. Kaufman, pp. 126–143. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.</ref></blockquote>

In May 1851, much of the town was destroyed during the [[Flood of 1851]]. "The Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers rose to an unprecedented height, inundating the entire country east of the Des Moines River. Crops were utterly destroyed, houses and fences swept away."<ref>Mills and Company (1866) ''Des Moines City Directory and Business Guide.'' Des Moines, Iowa: Mills and Company, p. 6. Microfilm, State Historical Society Library, Iowa City.</ref> The city started to rebuild from scratch.

===Era of growth===
On September 22, 1851, Des Moines was incorporated as a city; the charter was approved by voters on October 18. In 1857, the name "Fort Des Moines" was shortened to "Des Moines", and it was designated as the second state capital, previously at [[Iowa City, Iowa|Iowa City]]. Growth was slow during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] period, but the city exploded in size and importance after a railroad link was completed in 1866.<ref>Brigham, Johnson (1911) ''Des Moines: The Pioneer of Municipal Progress and Reform of the Middle West.'' Volume 1. Chicago: S. J. Clarke</ref>

In 1864, the Des Moines Coal Company was organized to begin the first systematic mining in the region. Its first mine, north of town on the river's west side, was exhausted by 1873. The Black Diamond mine, near the south end of the West Seventh Street Bridge, sank a {{convert|150|ft|m|adj=on}} [[shaft mining|mine shaft]] to reach a {{convert|5|ft|m|adj=mid|-thick}} coal bed. By 1876, this mine employed 150 men and shipped 20 carloads of coal per day. By 1885, numerous mine shafts were within the city limits, and mining began to spread into the surrounding countryside. By 1893, 23 mines were in the region.<ref name="lees_coal">James H. Lees, "History of Coal Mining in Iowa", Chapter III of [https://books.google.com/books?id=1BUMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA566 ''Annual Report, 1908''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117093152/https://books.google.com/books?id=1BUMAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA415&pg=PA566 |date=January 17, 2016 }}, Iowa Geological Survey, 1909, pages 566–569.</ref> By 1908, Des Moines' coal resources were largely exhausted.<ref name="hinds">Henry Hinds, "The Coal Deposits of Iowa", [https://books.google.com/books?id=1BUMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121 ''Annual Report, 1908''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116163201/https://books.google.com/books?id=1BUMAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA415&pg=PA121 |date=January 16, 2016 }}, Iowa Geological Survey, 1909, pages 121–127, and see map on page 102.</ref> In 1912, Des Moines still had eight locals of the [[United Mine Workers]] union, representing 1,410 miners.<ref>Tally Sheet, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cfAUAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA1005 ''Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Convention of the United Mine Workers of America''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116180310/https://books.google.com/books?id=cfAUAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA1005 |date=January 16, 2016 }}, Jan 16&nbsp;– February 2, 1912, Indianapolis; Volume 2, pages 180A–184A.</ref> This was about 1.7% of the city's population in 1910.

By 1880, Des Moines had a population of 22,408, making it Iowa's largest city. It displaced the three Mississippi River ports: Burlington, Dubuque, and Davenport, that had alternated holding the position since the territorial period. Des Moines has remained Iowa's most populous city. In 1910, the Census Bureau reported Des Moines' population as 97.3% white and 2.7% black, reflecting its early settlement pattern primarily by ethnic Europeans.<ref name="census">{{Cite web |title=Iowa&nbsp;— Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990 |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812191959/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |archive-date=August 12, 2012 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |df=mdy}}</ref>

==="City Beautiful" project, decline and rebirth===
[[File:Birthplace of Des Moines.jpg|thumb|The Barney Sakulin cabin, moved from Washington County, memorializes Fort Des Moines.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Historic American Buildings Survey Records |url=http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.ia0081 |access-date=November 21, 2017 |website=Hdl.loc.gov}}</ref>]]
[[File:A2738-19a small.jpg|thumb|[[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in Des Moines on June 30, 1966, near 5th Avenue and the (now-demolished) Hotel Franklin]]
[[File:The Capitol.jpg|alt=Iowa State Capitol building in 1917|thumb|left|Iowa State Capitol building, 1917]]

At the turn of the 20th century, encouraged by the Civic Committee of the [[Des Moines Women's Club]], Des Moines undertook a "[[City Beautiful]]" project in which large [[Beaux Arts (architecture)|Beaux Arts]] public buildings and fountains were constructed along the Des Moines River. The former [[Old Downtown Des Moines Library|Des Moines Public Library building]] (now the home of the [[World Food Prize]]); the United States [[U.S. Post Office (Des Moines, Iowa)|central Post Office]], built by the federal government (now the Polk County Administrative Building, with a newer addition); and the [[Des Moines City Hall|City Hall]] are surviving examples of the 1900–1910 buildings. They form the [[Civic Center Historic District (Des Moines, Iowa)|Civic Center Historic District]].

The ornate riverfront balustrades that line the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers were built by the federal [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] in the mid-1930s, during the [[Great Depression]] under Democratic President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], as a project to provide local employment and improve infrastructure. The ornamental fountains that stood along the riverbank were buried in the 1950s when the city began a postindustrial decline that lasted until the late 1980s.<ref>Dahl, Orin L. (1978) ''Des Moines: Capital City: A Pictorial and Entertaining Commentary on the Growth and Development of Des Moines, Iowa.'' Continental Heritage, Tulsa.</ref><ref>Gardiner, Allen (2004) ''Des Moines: A History in Pictures.'' Heritage Media, San Marcos, California.</ref> The city has since rebounded, transforming from a blue-collar industrial city to a white-collar professional city.

[[File:FEMA - 2938 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 07-19-1993 in Iowa.jpg|thumb|left|An aerial view of floodwaters, July 19, 1993]]
In 1907, the city adopted a [[city commission government]] known as the Des Moines Plan, comprising an elected mayor and four commissioners, all elected [[at-large]], who were responsible for public works, public property, public safety, and finance. Considered progressive at the time, it diluted the votes of ethnic and national minorities, who generally could not command a majority to elect a candidate of their choice.

That form of government was scrapped in 1950 in favor of a [[council-manager]] government, with the council members elected at-large. In 1967, the city changed its government to elect four of the seven city council members from [[single-member district]]s or wards, rather than at-large. This enabled a broader representation of voters. As with many major urban areas, the city core began losing population to the suburbs in the 1960s (the peak population of 208,982 was recorded in 1960), as highway construction led to new residential construction outside the city. The population was 198,682 in 2000 and grew slightly to 200,538 in 2009.<ref name="citypop">{{Cite web |title=Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Iowa: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2009 |url=https://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2009-04-19.xls |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628184052/http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2009-04-19.xls |archive-date=June 28, 2011 |access-date=June 30, 2010 |publisher=United States Census Bureau |format=XLS |df=mdy-all}}</ref> The growth of the outlying suburbs has continued, and the overall metropolitan-area population is over 700,000 today.

During the [[Great Flood of 1993]], heavy rains throughout June and early July caused the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers to rise above flood stage levels. The Des Moines Water Works was submerged by floodwaters during the early morning hours of July 11, 1993, leaving an estimated 250,000 people without running water for 12 days and without drinking water for 20 days. Des Moines suffered major flooding again in June 2008 with a major [[levee]] breach.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 14, 2008 |title=Flood-Ravaged Iowa Scrambles to Mend Levees, Protect Water Supplies and Salvage Homes |publisher=Fox News Channel |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/flood-ravaged-iowa-scrambles-to-mend-levees-protect-water-supplies-and-salvage-homes |url-status=live |access-date=September 12, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917161044/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,367004,00.html |archive-date=September 17, 2008 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> The Des Moines River is controlled upstream by [[Saylorville Lake|Saylorville Reservoir]]. In both 1993 and 2008, the flooding river overtopped the reservoir spillway.

Today, Des Moines is a member of [[ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA]]. Through ICLEI, Des Moines has implemented "The Tomorrow Plan", a regional plan focused on developing central Iowa in a sustainable fashion, centrally-planned growth, and resource consumption to manage the local population.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-12-22 |title=The Tomorrow Plan |url=https://dmampo.org/the-tomorrow-plan/ |access-date=2020-04-21 |website=Des Moines Area MPO |language=en-US}}</ref>