Although the town had existed since about 1853, it was chartered in September 1869.

“We officially became a city,” City Councilman Dave Flattery said.

That official charter came 150 years ago, and city leaders want to mark that anniversary.

The City Council took an initial step toward doing that on Monday by adopting two 150th anniversary logos. Both of them feature the iconic clock tower of the Webster County Courthouse.

-Submitted image
This is one of the two logos to acknowledge the 150th anniversary of Fort Dodge’s charter that were approved by the Fort Dodge City Council on Monday.

The logos will appear on shirts, medallions and other commemorative items.

They were approved unanimously by the council without discussion.

Flattery said future events will be planned to mark the anniversary.

“We’d like to do something with the Downtown Country Jam,” Flattery said.

He said the concert will be in September, 150 years to the month after the charter was issued.

“We think it’s important to get the brand out,” Flattery said of the logos. “We’ll know more as meetings and plans progress.”

The concept of the logos emerged from a discussion Flattery had in June 2018 with Brendan Gargano, a 2003 graduate of St. Edmond High School who runs a design company in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. Flattery recalled that Gargano asked if anything was being done to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the city’s charter.

At that time, nobody was doing anything regarding the anniversary.

Flattery said Gargano volunteered to design a 150th logo.

He submitted eight potentials.

A committee consisting of Mayor Matt Bemrich; Councilwoman Lydia Schuur; Kris Patrick, executive director of Main Street Fort Dodge; Eric Anderson, director of the Blanden Memorial Art Museum; local historian Roger Natte; Cory Bargfrede, advertising director of The Messenger; and Flattery examined all the submitted logos and picked the two that were adopted by the council Monday.

The community of Fort Dodge traces its origins to the U.S. Army’s establishment of Fort Clark in 1850. The military post was set up and occupied by the troops of Company E of the 6th Infantry. There were two officers and 66 enlisted men in the unit.

In 1851, the post’s name was changed to Fort Dodge. The Army shut down the fort in June 1853 and the soldiers were sent to an outpost in Minnesota. William Williams, who was a civilian merchant at the fort, then led the development of a city at the site of the military post. The community of Fort Dodge got its start in the second half of 1853, but wasn’t formally chartered until 1869.