Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Humboldt, IA

Humboldt is the largest city in Humboldt County, Iowa, though the county seat is its small neighbor Dakota City, just to the south.

Humboldt was founded in 1863 by Stephen Harris Taft, who laid it out under the name Springvale for the natural springs found near the Des Moines River.

Springvale was renamed Humboldt, after German explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, in the hope that it would merge with Dakota City into one town - a merger that never took place.

Founder Stephen Taft set five goals for his planned community, including wide tree-lined boulevards, a ban on the sale of intoxicants, and a college of university importance - and Humboldt is still known today for its unusually wide streets.

Humboldt College opened its doors on September 13, 1872, but struggled financially for decades, awarded its only degrees to a single graduating class in 1879, and closed for good in 1916.

Humboldt is the hometown of Frank Gotch, born on a farm south of town in 1877, who became world heavyweight wrestling champion and was so famous he was invited to the White House; he is buried in Humboldt's Union Cemetery.

Frank A. Gotch State Park, at the forks of the East and West branches of the Des Moines River just south of Humboldt, was named for the wrestler by an act of the Iowa legislature in 1949; the site is also thought to be where the Fort Confederation trading post stood under a federal permit granted in 1825.

The Liberty Fountain in Humboldt's John Brown Park was built in 1918 by Paul Dobberstein, the priest-sculptor best known for creating the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend.

In July 1955, when U.S.-Soviet contacts were rare, Humboldt hosted a delegation of Soviet officials overnight to give them a glimpse of rural American life, drawing national and international reporters.

Humboldt was the subject of the 1972 ABC-TV documentary 'A Small Town in Iowa,' written and produced by Andy Rooney and narrated by Humboldt native Harry Reasoner.