ESTHERVILLE

city, seat (1859) of Emmet county, northern Iowa, U.S. It lies along the West Fork of the Des Moines River, 92 miles (148 km) northwest of Fort Dodge. It was settled in 1857 shortly after a massacre of whites by Sioux at nearby Spirit Lake and was named for Esther Ridley, wife of one of the planners. Fort Defiance (1862), built as a protection against marauding Sioux, is preserved in a state park 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest. Three large fragments of a meteorite that exploded over the area on May 10, 1879, are displayed in museums in Vienna, London, and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The city is a trade and shipping centre with an agriculture-based economy and is the gateway from the east to the Iowa Great Lakes (q.v.) resort area. It is the seat of Iowa Lakes Community College (1967). Inc. town, 1881; city, 1894. Pop. (1990) 6,720.