Humboldt, Iowa Humboldt, Iowa Streetside in Humboldt Streetside in Humboldt Location of Humboldt, Iowa Location of Humboldt, Iowa County Humboldt Humboldt is a town/city in Humboldt County, Iowa, United States.
Gotch Park (just south of present-day Humboldt and Dakota City) was a locale of prehistoric and some Dakota Indian villages near where the two forks of the Des Moines River meet.
The founder of undivided Humboldt, Stephen Harris Taft, laid out the plans for Springvale, the initial name of the town, in 1863.
Taft wanted very wide boulevards throughout the town, and the improve is still known for its streets. Taft also edited the Humboldt County True Democrat through the offices of the Fort Dodge Sentinel in Fort Dodge. Springvale was retitled Humboldt (after the German explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt) in hope of a consolidation between Springvale and Dakota City (the governmental center of county of Humboldt County), but no consolidation took place. This is the first of two primary shortcomings that would stunt Humboldt's expansion and keep it from reaching Taft's goals.
The association was retitled to Humboldt Collegiate Association in accordance with the town's name change.
It was reported that "great enthusiasm" was the feeling in the room, however when the question was posed to the county's voters on October 12, 1869, the measure to appropriate swampland for a Northern Iowa College was defeated. Taft was not defeated, however, and looked East for funding.
Humboldt College opened its doors on September 13, 1872.
Without the college, Taft's dreams of Humboldt becoming an intellectual center of knowledge in the West could not be realized.
In July 1955, when contacts between Americans and Soviets were rare, Humboldt hosted a delegation of Soviet officials (and nationwide and global reporters) for an overnight glimpse of non-urban American life. On March 27, 1972, ABC-TV broadcast a half-hour documentary on Humboldt entitled "A Small Town in Iowa." The program was written and produced by Andy Rooney and narrated by Harry Reasoner, a Humboldt native. The show portrayed Humboldt as a kind of paradise that struggled to keep its most talented youth from leaving for larger cities, and asked, "what is it about paradise that's turning the bright kids off?" The answer, as stated to Reasoner and Rooney, was that "what seems to be missing is more a shortcoming of ours, than of the small town.
The First National Bank of Humboldt and its shareholders were the major victims of what the Des Moines Register described as "one of the most spectacular white-collar crimes in state history." In 1982 Humboldt native Gary Vance Lewellyn, then a Des Moines stockbroker, attempted to pump up the value of the stock of a high-tech business by singlehandedly creating phony market demand for it. To carry out the scheme, he illegally obtained access to bonds of the First National Bank of Humboldt valued at $16.7 million, and secretly pledged the Bank's bonds as security for his personal orders of the company's stock through Wall Street investment firms. When Lewellyn missed margin calls on his stock purchases, the firms obtained the bonds. Suspicious federal regulators closed the Humboldt Bank when it could not account for its missing bonds (and considered, but rejected, the idea of liquidating it). Its accountholders were protected by federal insurance but the shares in the bank became worthless.
Humboldt is positioned at 42 43 25 N 94 13 17 W (42.723631, -94.221520). According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 4.80 square miles (12.43 km2), of which, 4.64 square miles (12.02 km2) is territory and 0.16 square miles (0.41 km2) is water. Climate data for Humboldt, Iowa United States Enumeration Bureau.
As of the census of 2010, there were 4,690 citizens , 2,091 homeholds, and 1,250 families residing in the city.
The ethnic makeup of the town/city was 94.9% White, 0.6% African American, 0.1% Native American, 0.4% Asian, 3.0% from other competitions, and 0.9% from two or more competitions.
There were 2,091 homeholds of which 24.9% had kids under the age of 18 living with them, 48.2% were married couples living together, 7.9% had a female homeholder with no husband present, 3.7% had a male homeholder with no wife present, and 40.2% were non-families.
35.8% of all homeholds were made up of individuals and 17.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
The median age in the town/city was 45.3 years.
22.4% of inhabitants were under the age of 18; 7.3% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 19.9% were from 25 to 44; 26% were from 45 to 64; and 24.5% were 65 years of age or older.
The ethnic makeup of the town/city was 98.41% White, 0.20% African American, 0.04% Native American, 0.25% Asian, 0.65% from other competitions, and 0.45% from two or more competitions.
There were 1,965 homeholds out of which 24.9% had kids under the age of 18 living with them, 52.3% were married couples living together, 6.6% had a female homeholder with no husband present, and 38.8% were non-families.
35.9% of all homeholds were made up of individuals and 21.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
Age spread: 21.8% under the age of 18, 6.7% from 18 to 24, 22.9% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 26.5% who were 65 years of age or older.
About 4.4% of families and 7.3% of the populace were below the poverty line, including 15.0% of those under age 18 and 4.0% of those age 65 or over.
Dick Schultz - College sports coach, executive director of the United States Olympic Committee United States Enumeration Bureau.
"American Fact - Finder".
Frontier Forts of Iowa: Indians, Traders, and Soldiers, 1682-1862 (book) by William E.
"Humboldt, Iowa History." Humboldt County Historical Association.
Humboldt County Historical Association.
"Humboldt History." City of Humboldt.City of Humboldt Iowa.
Humboldt's Cosmos.
"Humboldt History." City of Humboldt.City of Humboldt Iowa.
Utopia is Humboldt, Ia., the inhabitants of which were filmed for an ABC documentary last January, March 26, 1972," Des Moines Register, 1972-03-26, at 3-TV.
Editorial, "Paradise is Humboldt, Ia.," Des Moines Register, 1972-03-29, at 6.
Mariam Rosen, "Hot Product: World-class Embezzler Gary Lewellyn Rebounds With a Fast-Selling Treatment for A.D.D.," Dallas Observer, 1996-6-27.
"Catch Me If You Can: A Stockbroker's Get-Rich-Quick Scheme Goes Sour," TIME, 1982-4-26.
"Lewellyn Gets 20-Year Term," New York Times, 1982-11-18.
"1980s Iowa bank embezzler Gary Lewellyn dead at 63", Des Moines Register, 2012-07-05.
"Humboldt, Iowa".
"Enumeration of Population and Housing".
"Sees Fighting Chance for Smith in Iowa and the Defeat of Gov.
Hammill," The Davenport Democrat and Leader, 1928-11-1, and Iowa State Register 1933-34.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Humboldt, Iowa.
Humboldt Community School District Humboldt portal style website City government, Chamber of commence, Development association City-Data Comprehensive Statistical Data and more about Humboldt Municipalities and communities of Humboldt County, Iowa, United States
Categories:
Cities in Iowa - Cities in Humboldt County, Iowa - Populated places established in 1863
|