Editing Fort Dodge, Iowa (section)

==History==
[[File:Fort Dodge, established in 1850 - History of Iowa.jpg|thumb|left|Fort Dodge, illustrated by William Williams, 1852.]]
[[File:FI0006529.jpg|alt=Central Avenue, Fort Dodge, Iowa|thumb|Girls Rally Day parade on Central Avenue]]
Fort Dodge traces its beginnings to 1850 when Capt. Samuel Woods, with his E Company of the [[6th Infantry Regiment (United States)|6th Infantry]] were sent from [[Fort Snelling]] to erect and garrison  a fort at the junction of the [[Des Moines River]] and [[Lizard Creek (Iowa)|Lizard Creek]], they arrived August 2, 1850. It was originally named Fort Clarke, in honor of Brev. Brig. Gen. Newman S. Clarke, colonel of the Sixth 151, but was renamed Fort Dodge because there was another fort with the same name in Texas. It was named after [[Henry Dodge]], a governor of [[Wisconsin Territory]] (which had included Iowa until Iowa became a state in 1846).<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n128 129]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book  | last = Gue  | first = Benjamin|title=History of Iowa from the earliest times to the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Volume 1| publisher=The Century History Company|year=1903|location=New York|pages= 267|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0KAUAAAAYAAJ&q=History+of+Iowa+From+the+Earliest+Times+to+the+Beginning+of+the+Twentieth+Century&pg=PR1| access-date = 19 June 2010}}</ref> The fort was abandoned by the Army in 1853.

The next year William Williams, a civilian storekeeper in Fort Dodge, purchased the land and buildings of the old fort.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} The town of Fort Dodge was founded in 1869. In 1872 the long and continuing history of [[gypsum]] production in Iowa started when George Ringland, Webb Vincent, and Stillman T. Meservey formed the Fort Dodge Plaster Mills to mine, grind, and prepare gypsum for commercial use.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} The Company constructed the first gypsum mill west of the [[Mississippi River]], at the head of what is now known as Gypsum Creek.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

In 2018, Kris Patrick, Executive Director of [[List of Main Street Programs in the United States#Iowa|Fort Dodge Main Street]], stated that Fort Dodge is locally referred to as "Little Chicago" because architects modeled downtown buildings to resemble Chicago in the mid-1900s.<ref>{{cite news | last = Riley | first = Roger | date = January 5, 2018 | title = Fort Dodge Back Into Main Street Iowa Program | url = https://who13.com/news/fort-dodge-back-into-main-street-iowa-program/ | work = WHO Des Moines 13}}</ref>