The area which is now the state of Iowa was originally a small part of the Louisiana Purchase which the United States government obtained from France in 1803.

          The Dallas County area of the state abounded in rich, black, rolling virgin prairie land with many ponds and creeks.  Waist-high slough grass flourished in the lower land while shorter grass covered the higher ground as well as the timberland along the creeks and rivers.  Wild flowers bloomed profusely and native trees included ash, elm, hickory, hackberry, oak, walnut, maple, linden, boxelder, locust, willow, cottonwood and a few red cedars.  The rivers provided fish and the woods along the streams were inhabited by wild animal life including geese, ducks, cranes, quail, prairie chickens, turkeys, squirrels and rabbits.  Wild berries grew in many places.  Buffalo herds roamed the prairies.  Deer, opposum, raccoon, panther, wolves, badger, skunk, bears, mink and muskrat were to be found in their favorite haunts making a real paradise for hunters and trappers of that day.

          The Sac and Fox Indians are known to have resided in the Dallas County area.  They lived in tepee villages.  The men were natural rovers, hunters and warriors, caring mostly for hunting, fishing and trapping.  Thus the real work was left to the wives or squaws who secured the wood, made the fires, cared for the children, cooked the food and crudely tilled small areas raising corn and other foods for their families.  Many and interesting are the tales of Indian massacres and desperate battles which took place perhaps in or near the present Dallas Center vicinity.

          In October 1842, the Sac and Fox Indians agreed to a treaty with the federal government to relinquish their claim to a large territory including what later became Dallas County, and move on westward to Kansas.  They were given three years to effect the change.  Thus it was possible for early settlers to enter this area safely by 1842.

          Dallas County was named for Hon. George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania who was vice-president of United States in 1846 when Iowa became a state.  Dallas County was legally opened for settlement in 1845.  One year later, the county was organized; and in 1850, the county commissioners met and divided the county into five precincts for political and judicial purposes.

          Quoting from the Dallas Center Times of February, 1921, an item of interest sent to the Des Moines Register by one of Dallas Center's pioneers, J. A. Richmond:  "Remember way back - When we used to get together on Sunday, chase over the prairie burning patches of old grass to find prairie chicken nests and wade out in the ponds to get duck, goose and crane eggs off the muskrat houses?"

          Explanation by Editor E. A. Emmert:  "J. A. Richmond was in the Dallas Center area when all was a vast expanse of virgin prairie, dotted with thousands of ponds, the rendezvous of waterfowl and fur-bearing animals.  The Richmond family located a mile south of the present location of the town, in 1855, or 14 years before the railroad came through in 1869.  At that time there were only a few shacks in what is now our town.  Mr. Richmond said he had clubbed wolves to death on the very spot on which the town now stands."

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