Le Mars

my dad and his brothers and sisters were all born and raised here, and my grandparents have lived there most of their lives. you can ride your bike anywhere in town, but it is most definitely a small rural town. very old fashioned, kind of quaint. i spent many a christmas while growing up here. the museum which occupies the old school house is incredibly interesting. there’s a crazy statue in one of the parks. over the summer, my cousin paid me 40 dollars and a PBR wall sign to cut my hair into a mullet, dye it, and then run out through a major intersection on a saturday night. while in the shower getting the dye off my skin and hair, the police arrived. no less than 5 phone calls in 5 minutes! totally sweet. lots of memories

Le Mars is just a short drive North of Sioux City… Home of Wells Dairy, and the now famous Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream. My family lived in the town while I was fairly young. I still have many relatives who live in and around the quaint little town. My understanding of how the town was named “Le Mars” is because in 1869, Le Mars was platted but no lots were offered for sale until June of 1879 when railroad builder John I. Blair arrived by special train with a company of officials and a group of ladies. When the train stopped the ladies were asked to suggest a name for the town, then know as St. Paul Junction. It is believed that the ladies, whose names were Lucy Underhill, Elizabeth Parson, Mary Weare, Anna Blair, Rebecca Smith and Sarah Reynolds, wrote the first initials of their first names and arrived at an ingenious arrangement of them so as to produce the novel name “Le Mars.” Within two decades the tiny town would grow to a city of 4,000 residents. In the United States census of 1890, Le Mars was listed as the 4th fastest growing city in the state