During westward expansion in the 1800s, this area is thought to be the location of a fort/trading post called Fort Confederation.

According to Federal records in 1825, permission was granted to build the fort to trade with the Ihanktonwan Dakota (Yankton Sioux) Indians.

[3][4] The founder of modern Humboldt, Stephen Harris Taft, laid out the plans for Springvale, the original name of the town, in 1863.

[5] Taft undertook the great task of turning empty, blooming prairie into the community of his dreams.

It was reported that "great enthusiasm" was the feeling in the room, however when the question was posed to the county's voters on October 12, 1869, the measure to appropriate swampland for a Northern Iowa College was defeated.

After almost missing a payment deadline that would've sunk the college for good, Taft broke ground on June 17, 1870.

Tens of thousands shall gather here a hundred years hence to commemorate the birth of the institution and rejoice in the blessings it shall have conferred.

The first three years were designed as preparatory work intended to supplement the pupils' public education that ended around eighth grade.

An endowment fund capable of supporting Taft's vision seemed impossible to create, and following turbulent financial times in the East, the college closed in 1916.

Without the college, Taft's dreams of Humboldt becoming an intellectual center of knowledge in the West could not be realized.

[10] On March 27, 1972, ABC-TV broadcast a half-hour documentary on Humboldt entitled "A Small Town in Iowa.

"[11] The program was written and produced by Andy Rooney and narrated by Harry Reasoner, a Humboldt native.

"[12] The First National Bank of Humboldt and its shareholders were the primary victims of what the Des Moines Register described as “one of the most spectacular white-collar crimes in state history.”[14] In 1982 Humboldt native Gary Vance Lewellyn, then a Des Moines stockbroker, attempted to pump up the value of the stock of a high-tech company by singlehandedly creating phony market demand for it.

[15] To carry out the scheme, he illegally obtained access to bonds of the First National Bank of Humboldt valued at $16.7 million, and secretly pledged the Bank's bonds as security for his personal orders of the company's stock through Wall Street investment firms.

[17] Suspicious federal regulators closed the Humboldt Bank when it could not account for its missing bonds (and considered, but rejected, the idea of liquidating it).

[21] Humboldt County is located entirely within the Des Moines Lobe of the Western Corn Belt Plains ecoregion, as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

One of the flattest regions in Iowa, the Des Moines Lobe ecoregion is a distinctive area naturally defined by Wisconsin glaciation but modified by humans for extensive agriculture.

In general, the land is level to gently rolling with some areas of relief defined by glacial features like moraines, hummocky knobs, and kettles, and outwash deposits.

The stream network is poorly developed and widely spaced, with major rivers carving valleys that are relatively deep and steep-sided.

Humboldt experiences all four seasons characterized by cold winters, wet springs, hot summers, and relatively short autumns.