[3] Le Mars is located within America Township and is part of the Sioux City metropolitan area.

[4][5] Le Mars was platted three years later but no lots were sold until the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad Company, a subsidiary of the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad (later part of the Illinois Central Railroad), completed its trackage from Le Mars southwardly to Sioux City in 1870.

Blair asked the women in the party to name the town, and they submitted an acronym based upon their first names' initials: Lucy Ford and Laura Walker, Ellen Cleghorn or Elizabeth Underhill, Martha Weare and Mary Weare, Adeline Swain, Rebecca Smith and Sarah Reynolds.

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.

[10][11] During the Great Depression in 1933, at a time when banks were foreclosing on many farmers, Le Mars caught the attention of the nation when "over five hundred farmers crowded the court room in Le Mars", according to an account by historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

The farmers were there to demand that Judge Charles C. Bradley suspend foreclosure proceedings until recently passed laws could be considered.

The crowd rushed the judge, slapped him, and placed a rope around his neck and a hub cap on his head.

[12] President George W. Bush came to Le Mars on November 3, 2006, to campaign for Jim Nussle, then candidate for Iowa governor, as well as Rep. Steve King.

He spoke at Le Mars Community High School to a crowd of over 2500 people.

[13] Le Mars is a popular stop for presidential candidates as they make their way across caucus-famous Iowa, and has been visited by nearly every presidential candidate over the past several elections including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, John McCain, etc.

In 1925, Fred H. Wells Jr. and his sons had opened an ice cream manufacturing plant there.

In 1935, Fred and his sons sought to begin selling ice cream again, but could no longer use their name.

[15] Dominating the skyline of present-day Le Mars is Wells' Blue Bunny Dairy's 900,000-square-foot (84,000 m2) plant with a 12-story tall refrigeration tower called the "South Ice Cream Plant" – so-named because it is on the south side of town.

To showcase its sweet treats, Le Mars has an ice cream parlor, which was remodeled in 2019, and includes an old-fashioned ice cream serving station, museum displays, roof-top seating, and gift shop.

The ice cream parlor in Le Mars is one of the largest tourist attractions in the state of Iowa.

Le Mars hosts an annual celebration "Ice Cream Days" every year in late June which includes many activities such as ice cream socials, concerts, art exhibitions, parades, and more.

Westmar University was a private four-year liberal arts college in Le Mars.