Fort Des Moines: Iowa Time Machine February 16, 1857

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On February 16, 1857, the name “Fort Des Moines” was officially changed to the “City of Des Moines,” marking the formal transition from a former military post to a fully incorporated city identity. Later that same year, in October 1857, Des Moines was officially designated the capital of Iowa.

The 1850s represented a pivotal decade for Iowa's development and identity. Statehood had arrived in 1846, yet Iowa City, the original capital, lay too far east to serve a state expanding rapidly westward. The population had exploded from 192,000 in 1850 to over 674,000 by 1860, with new settlers pushing into central and western counties. Fort Des Moines sat at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers, strategically positioned near the geographic center of the state. Due to the location, a military officer initially proposed the name “Fort Racoon” for the post, but the suggestion didn’t gain traction with higher-ups, who found the name in ill taste.

The fort itself had closed in 1846 after the Sauk and Meskwaki peoples were forcibly removed from Iowa, leaving behind an abandoned military structure that settlers quickly occupied. A devastating flood in May 1851 destroyed the entire town as the rivers rose to unprecedented heights, forcing residents to rebuild from scratch. That September, Fort Des Moines incorporated as a city with just 3,500 residents living in about 500 dwellings. The community understood that to attract state capital and compete with eastern Iowa cities, residents decided that dropping “Fort” from the name might be a step in the right direction.

The name change took place just before the 1857 Constitutional Convention was meeting in Iowa City to draft a new state constitution—the question of where to locate the capital dominated discussions permanently. Public opinion had quite generally settled upon Fort Des Moines as the logical place for the future state capital, strategically situated as it was on the greatest interior waterway of Iowa and at a point approximating the center of the Commonwealth. The constitutional convention incorporated in the Constitution of 1857 the following section: "The seat of Government is hereby permanently established, as now fixed by law, at the Des Moines, in the County of Polk.” Governor Grimes proclaimed Des Moines as the capital that October, cementing what the February name change had signaled: the city's transformation was complete. #Iowa #OTD #History #DesMoines #Learning