Editing Odebolt, Iowa (section)

==History==
Odebolt was [[plat]]ted in 1877 when the [[Chicago & Northwestern Railway]] was extended to that point.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_bH8HtIwXzdcC | title=History of Western Iowa, Its Settlement and Growth | publisher=Western Publishing Company | year=1882 | page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_bH8HtIwXzdcC/page/n530 531]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Chicago and North Western Railway Company|title=A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA109|year=1908|page=109}}</ref> Odebolt was incorporated as a city May 13, 1878.

While the etymology of Odebolt's unusual name is unquestioned — being named after the Odebolt Creek — the etymology of the creek's name is disputed.  It has been ascribed to a story of a French fur trapper and to multiple stories of a bolt falling in the creek.<ref>{{cite web |author=Eriksson, Erik McKinley |url=http://www.rootsweb.com/~iaohms/odeboltname1.html |title=The Name of Odebolt |publisher=The Palimpsest |date=December 1929 |access-date=2007-08-29}}</ref>  The trapper's name was reportedly Odebeau, and his name corrupted.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gannett, Henry, 1846-1914 |title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States |publisher=Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office |year=1905 |page=229 }}</ref>