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'''Doolittle''' is a city in western [[Phelps County, Missouri|Phelps County]], [[Missouri]]. It had a population of 630 at the 2010 census.
'''Doolittle''' is a city in western [[Phelps County, Missouri|Phelps County]], [[Missouri]]. It had a population of 630 at the 2010 census.
==History==
Doolittle is among the younger communities in Phelps County, having been established only in 1941 as a by-product of the construction of [[Fort Leonard Wood]] some 20 miles to the southwest. Thousands of workers were hired for the building process, and in this stretch of the Ozarks there were not enough communities to adequately house them; many employees had to share beds in shifts. Some of them found housing in an unincorporated stretch of Phelps County between [[Rolla, Missouri|Rolla]] and [[Newburg, Missouri|Newburg]], which for that reason came to be known as Centertown.
As construction continued, more businesses and permanent residents appeared in the Centertown area to service the workers, and Lou Hargis, a local entrepreneur, launched a campaign to have the new community incorporated as a city. This succeeded, with Hargis and several other notables acting as trustees until April 1944, when the first city elections were held. At this time, it was decided to rename the town "Doolittle" in honor of [[World War II]] hero Lieutenant General [[James Doolittle|James "Jimmy" Doolittle]], who had led a famous [[Doolittle Raid|air raid]] on [[Tokyo, Japan]] in 1942. When the dedication ceremony was held in 1946, General Doolittle himself arrived in his [[B-25 Mitchell]] to speak.<ref>https://www.city-data.com/city/Doolittle-Missouri.html</ref>
Though the workers who were the reason for Doolittle's existence mostly departed after the completion of the fort, the town maintained itself over time, profiting from its proximity to U.S. Route 66 and then its replacement, Interstate 44. A few attractions and service industries from those days are still visited on occasion by tourists retracing the old U.S. 66 route.<ref>https://www.theroute-66.com/doolittle.html</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Missouri Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Missouri Cities and Towns]]