West Okoboji, IA

West Okoboji is a small Dickinson County village on the lake that gives it its name, just beside the Iowa Great Lakes’ long summer history. The shoreline story runs through Arnolds Park: Wesley Arnold began welcoming travelers to the south shore in the 1870s, built a hotel in the 1880s, and added the first amusement-park attraction in 1889. West Okoboji’s identity is therefore tied to water, boats, cottages, and the old resort landscape around Arnolds Park. It is a place where the village boundary is small, but the lake’s name carries the wider story of the Iowa Great Lakes.