Episode 3 of 4
Destruction of Fort Des Moines
- When
- May 1851
- Where
- Fort Des Moines
Much of Fort Des Moines was destroyed in May 1851 as the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers rose to unprecedented heights.
The town, incorporated as Fort Des Moines in 1851, suffered significant damage. The rivers inundated the entire country east of the Des Moines River. Arozina Perkins had previously noted the extreme mud in January 1851.
Sources
- Des Moines, Iowa Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-04
- Flood of 1851 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-01-06
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.