Fort Dodge

Fort Dodge is a city of 25,000 people (2020) in North Central Iowa on the Des Moines River. Fort Dodge is a major commercial center for North Central and Northwest Iowa.

Understand
Fort Dodge is locally referred to as "Little Chicago" because architects modeled downtown buildings to resemble Chicago in the mid-1900s.

By car
U.S. Route 20 bypasses Fort Dodge to the south, and U.S. 169 skirts the west side of the city; both highways have business routes through town. Iowa Highway 7 has its terminus at the northwest edge of the city.

By bus
DART (Dodger Area Rapid Transit) maintains six local bus routes that connect to most commercial, medical, and educational locations on weekdays only.

Jefferson Bus lines serves Fort Dodge with a link to Williams, where travelers can connect to the expanded Jefferson line.

Do

 * Fort Dodge is a top tubing destination in the state, offering the swift and clear waters of Lizard Creek, solitude on the Des Moines River from Fort Dodge to the Dolliver Memorial State Park, and the nearby lake at Brushy Creek.
 * The Fort Dodge Country Club par 71 golf course is one of Iowa's top courses.
 * Fort Frenzy, east of town, features family-friendly activities such as an arcade, bumper boats, bumper cars, mini golf, go karts, laser tag, skating, and bowling.
 * Fort Frenzy, east of town, features family-friendly activities such as an arcade, bumper boats, bumper cars, mini golf, go karts, laser tag, skating, and bowling.

Theatre

 * Hawkeye Community Theatre puts on six full-length productions a year of varied genre.
 * Comedia Musica Players is a civic musical theater troupe that produces an annual musical each fall.
 * Stage Door Productions provides theater training and performance opportunities for middle school, high school, and college-aged students during the summer. It produces one small-cast (10 or fewer) play per year.

Sleep

 * John F. Kennedy Park is the nearest camping facility to Fort Dodge. It has a large campground, a lake with a swimming beach, a playground, and hiking trails. Lakeside Municipal Golf Course, an 18-hole course, is located here.