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Le Mars is a city in and the county seat of Plymouth County, Iowa, United States.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 It is located on the Floyd River and northeast of Sioux City. The population was 9,826 at the 2010 census. Le Mars is the home of Wells' Dairy, the world's largest producer of ice cream novelties in one location and is the self-proclaimed "Ice Cream Capital of the World". Wells is best known for its Blue Bunny products. ==History== Le Mars was platted in 1869, but no lots were sold until the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company arrived in 1879. According to town legend, CNW investor John I. Blair and a group of women arrived at the town, which was then called St. Paul Junction. Blair asked the women to name the town, and they submitted an acronym based upon their first names' initials: Lucy Underhill, Elizabeth Parson, Mary Weare, Anna Blair, Rebecca Smith and Sarah Reynolds.〔http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45829898#45829898〕 In 1885, Frederick Brooke Close, a young Englishman who had passed up attending Cambridge University to live in Iowa, founded the Northwestern Polo League in Le Mars.〔Horace A. Laffaye, ''Polo in Britain: A History'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 70〕〔Curtis Harnack, ''Gentlemen on the Prairie: Victorians in Pioneer Iowa'', Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2011 p. 138〕 In 1913, Fred H. Wells opened a milk route in Le Mars. By 1925, Wells and his sons had opened an ice cream manufacturing plant there. The plant (and the Wells name) was purchased by Fairmount Ice Cream in 1928. In 1935, Fred and his sons sought to begin selling ice cream again, but could no longer use their name. They therefore sponsored a “Name That Ice Cream” contest in the ''Sioux City Journal''. The winner of the $25 prize suggested "Blue Bunny" because his son had enjoyed seeing blue bunnies in department store windows at Easter. In 1933, according to Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, there was a wide gap of wealth inequality between the Industrial segments of America and the Agricultural regions. During this time banks were foreclosing on farmers left and right. Le Mars caught the attention of the nation when "over 500 hundred farmers crowded the court room in Le Mars" to demand that judge Charles C. Bradley suspend foreclosure proceedings until recently passed laws could be considered. The judge refused. According to Schlesinger a farmer remarked that the court room wasn't his alone, that we farmers had paid for it with our taxes. The crowd rushed the judge, slapped him, and drove to a pole and placed a rope around his neck and a hub cap on his head. They did not kill him, however, the people of Le Mars had demonstrated that respecting law unfairly applied was not to be tolerated.〔Arthur Schlesinger Jr. The Coming of the New Deal, Houghton Mifflin, 5th printing 1958, page 42 and 43〕 Meanwhile, the Wells were eventually able to get back their name after Blue Bunny became popular. However, it remained largely a regional ice cream until 1992, when it began to expand nationally. The centerpiece of the expansion is a plant with a 12-story tall refrigeration tower called the "South Ice Cream Plant" because it is on the south side of town (at 1 Blue Bunny Drive). The plant employs 1,000 and produces 75 million gallons of frozen treats, the milk coming mainly coming from three large Iowa dairy farms.〔(The big chill: Wells' Dairy's South Ice Cream Plant dominates the world of frozen dessert production - Allbusiness.com - January 1, 2005 )〕 The size of this plant has led to speculation that the company is the world's largest family-owned and -managed dairy processor and the world's largest manufacturer of ice cream in one location, with Le Mars claiming to be the "Ice Cream Capital of the World". Wells also produces ice brands marketed by Häagen-Dazs, Baskin-Robbins, General Mills, and General Foods in Le Mars.〔(Wells Dairy Ice Cream Production Facility, St George, Utah, USA )〕 Wells Dairy provoked a crisis at Häagen-Daz in 1999 when an explosion occurred at the South Plant, the primary producer of Häagen-Dazs, at the beginning of the summer ice cream season.〔(International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 36. St. James Press, 2001 (via fundinguniverse.com) )〕 Häagen-Dazs has subsequently added other dairies as its producers. President George W. Bush came to Le Mars on November 3, 2006, to campaign for Jim Nussle for Iowa governor.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Le Mars Daily Sentinel )〕 He spoke at Le Mars Community High School to a crowd of a couple thousand. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Le Mars, Iowa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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