Establishment of Fort Des Moines 2

A typical frontier fort from the 1840s. No actual drawings of
Fort Des Moines are available.

In the spring of 1843, the U.S. Army sent a detachment of soldiers into the Iowa wilderness to build Fort Des Moines No. 2. The first fort, built near Montrose Hill in 1837, had failed after a few years.

Captain James Allen, a West Point–trained topographical engineer, led the mission. His men from the 1st U.S. Dragoons left Fort Sanford and Fort Dodge, followed the Des Moines River, and stopped at a muddy fork where two brown rivers met. Allen later wrote, “The junction of the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers presents high and dry ground, and is well suited for a post commanding the valley.”

The soldiers built a stockade of cottonwood logs enclosing about four acres. Inside stood two blockhouses, a storehouse, stables, and several cabins. In the center lay a parade ground where the men drilled, repaired equipment, and waited for mail that rarely came.

The fort’s purpose was to oversee the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes. A few years earlier, the United States had compelled them to cede their eastern Iowa lands under the Treaty of 1842. Allen’s official orders stated his duty was “to prevent the intrusion of whites upon Indian lands, and to keep the Indians from crossing eastward.”

The Dragoons had little to do but patrol, trade for food, and try to stay healthy. In one report Allen admitted, “The men suffer much from idleness and exposure, yet conduct themselves with good order.” Evenings were spent around small fires, writing letters and listening to the wind sweep across the prairie.

Allen, trained as a mapmaker, recorded everything. His 1844 expedition journal describes the same landscape in spare precision: “The prairies are boundless; the timber follows the rivers; the soil is rich and deep; the country, one of promise.”

The Sauk leader Keokuk, who had negotiated the tribe’s earlier treaties, told government officials, “I am the friend of the whites, but I remember the lands from which we came. They cannot be forgotten.” The Meskwaki chief Poweshiek, who still hunted along the Des Moines, said simply, “The land is ours. We have never sold it.”

Fort Des Moines remained small and quiet. One soldier drowned crossing the river. Another was punished for selling whiskey. Supplies came late; horses died; the roofs leaked. The men called it “Fort Misery.”

By 1846, the Army declared the tribes “removed” and ordered the fort abandoned. In his last entry Allen noted, “The post is no longer required; we march south tomorrow.” A few months later, while leading a detachment of Mormon volunteers in Mexico, Allen fell ill and died.

Settlers soon took over the empty post. They planted corn on the parade ground and lived in the soldiers’ cabins. The settlement kept the name Fort Des Moines.

Three years later, Iowa became a state. In 1857, the “Fort” was dropped. Today, Allen’s outpost lies buried beneath downtown Des Moines—under streets, bridges, and the sound of the city he helped begin.