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is a city in Jones County, Iowa, United States. The population was 5,494 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Jones County.
What is now Anamosa was founded as the settlement of Buffalo Forks in 1838 and incorporated as Lexington in 1856. Lexington was a very popular name for towns at that time, so when Lexington chose to become incorporated as a city in 1877, the name was changed to Anamosa to avoid mail delivery confusion. There are many different stories on how Anamosa was chosen as a name, but all center around a local Native American girl named Anamosa, which means white fawn. Interestingly enough, a deaf man who ran, wrote for and edited the local newspaper (The Eureka) was the one who suggested the name Anamosa. His name was Edmund Booth and was a prominent leader in the national deaf community at the time. In Anamosa's early days, many important buildings such as the post office and the church, sat on the street which used to be land Booth owned. When Booth died in 1905, every store in town closed to mourn his death.
There is a romantic legend of the native girl Anamosa. She and her lover throw themselves off a bluff overlooking the Wapsipinicon River, near the site of the future town.
Anamosa was named the Pumpkin Capital of Iowa by the Iowa State Legislature in 1993 and subsequently hosts Pumpkinfest, a pumpkin festival and weigh-off, each October.