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This country's first mounted military units were called Dragoons. The term Dragoons and the battle tactics used by them had their roots in European military history. Dragoons were mounted infantry. They rode horseback to the site of battle and then dismounted to fight on foot. In this country that practice was soon amended as the Dragoons adopted traditional cavalry tactics and fought from horseback as well. The shock of a massed charge by sword-wielding horsemen was a powerful psychological and deadly weapon.

During the Revolutionary War, Dragoon units were used mainly to carry messages and as escorts, although they did fight valiantly in a least three major battles. During the following decades Congress alternately authorized and disbanded mounted military units as the occasion dictated.

By the 1830's it had become apparent that the rapidly expanding frontier demanded highly mobile troops able to cover the vast expanses of the American West. In 1833 Colonel Henry Dodge established the 1st United States Dragoons. Dodge, after whom, along with his son Augustus Caeser Dodge, Fort Dodge was named, was described by Dragoon Lt. Albert M. Lea as "a splendid man, soldierly, erect, with an eagle eye, but lacking in the amenities and grammar." The Dragoons were flamboyant by any military standard. Long hair, colorful scarfs, facial hair and even earrings adorned these elite troops.

The Dragoons were furnished with equipment representing the latest in 19th Century technology. The Hall-North carbine carried by them was the first percussion weapon and the first breechloading weapon adopted by any government on earth. Being a percussion cap firearm, it was much more reliable in adverse weather conditions than the flintlock, which required loose blackpowder for the priming charge. The percussion system used a small copper cup that held an explosive charge, very similar to a child's cap gun, that exploded and ignited the main charge as the hammer fell. Being a breechloading weapon, it was immensely easier to load on horseback than a muzzleloader which called for a barrel-length ramrod to seat the lead ball projectile on the powder charge.

In 1835 the Dragoons were ordered to conduct the first official exploration of the Des Moines River Valley. Three companies, under the command of Lt. Colonel Stephan Watts Kearney, left their post at Fort Des Moines No. 1, near present day Montrose, Iowa, on the Mississippi River and began the expedition. Captain Nathan Boone, son of old Daniel Boone and Lt. Albert Lea, topographer for the expedition, were two of the officers on the march. One hundred-sixty Dragoons, five four-mule teams and wagons, tents, provisions, packhorses, and beef cattle for the commissary started the march at the sound of the bugle. The date was June 7, 1835.

The men moved northwesterly between the Des Moines and Skunk rivers until reaching the mouth of the Boone River, north of present-day Stratford. Here they turned to the northeast and headed toward Lake Pepin in Minnesota Territory. Travel was slow for a good portion of the expedition due to the swampy nature of the Iowa prairies prior to the days of agricultural tiling. Arriving near Lake Pepin the troops turned south and marched to the site of Winona, Minnesota, and remained in that vicinity for almost three weeks. During this period Colonel Kearney met with the Sioux Chief Wabashaw and the troops were supplied with fresh provisions from the steamboat "Warrior".

On July 21 the Dragoons commenced the return march. Moving west in a line roughly parallel to the Iowa/Minnesota border, the men turned south and entered Iowa in what is now northwest Kossuth County. Picking up the Des Moines River near present day Emmetsburg, the Dragoons continued down river noting the area around the forks of the Des Moines had potential as a site for a future military post. Fifteen years later, in the summer of 1850, a site ten miles south was chosen for the post which eventually grew in the city of Fort Dodge.

On August 4 the Dragoons camped on the banks of Deer Creek, six miles north of Fort Dodge and the next day crossed the "Lizard River" and named it for the numerous creatures, probably salamanders, seen scampering along it's banks. continuing the march to the southeast the troops reconnoitered the forks of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers in that is now Des Moines. Again the purpose was picking a likely site for a future fort.

With provisions running dangerously low, the troops proceeded down the river and arrived back at Fort Des Moines No. 1 on August 19, 1835. The Dragoons had ridden eleven hundred miles in slightly over two months and provided the first reliable geographical information on the central part of our state. They selected and recommended sites for two future military posts which would eventually become the cities of Fort Dodge and Des Moines. Lt. Albert Lea's journal of the trek would be published in book form and give the American public it's first detailed description of the land between Americas greatest rivers. The publication was also the first to give widespread usage to the term "Iowa" and is generally credited with the naming of our state.

In 1935, to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Dragoon March, the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a series of bronze plaques at various locations along the old trail. One of these may be seen at a monument to the Dragoons at the Fort Museum in Fort Dodge, only a stone throw from where the Dragoons passed in 1835.

In 1933, the State of Iowa opened the Dragoon Trail, a scenic drive along the Des Moines River that follows the path of the 1st United States Dragoons on their historic march.

The Des Moines River Valley provides some of the most beautiful and rugged scenery to be found within the borders of Iowa. The cooperation between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the State of Iowa, and the counties and communities along the trail have provided a scenic and historic drive.

The Fort Dodge Dragoons, a non-profit community service organization, sponsor and organize our Frontier Days celebration. They also contribute to various worthy causes such as the D.A.R.E. Program, Webster county Crimestoppers, Webster County Sheriffs Possee, the Labor Day Skydiver's convention and other tourism related projects. The Fort Dodge Dragoons are named in honor of the pioneering military unit that first explored central Iowa.

Fort Museum.
South Kenyon & Museum Road
Fort Dodge, IA 50501
Phone: 515-573-4231
Fax: 515-573-4231
thefort@frontiernet.net