Saga of the Des Moines River Greenbelt

FOREWORD

The Des Moines, the "Old Man River" of Central Iowa, keeps rolling along and is indeed old as compared to human occupation of the land. In its long life it has rerouted its channel from one bluff to the other It has straightened its course by cutting through meanders. It has been dumped full of glacial debris and has had to fight its way out again. It has been continually changing.

When white settlers came into the land, they became a major factor in changing the river as they deforested its banks, planted crops right up to the river’s edge, and straightened it. In recent years, the U.S. Government made two great dams, Red Rock and Saylorville. In part, these two projects were attempts to correct mistakes man had previously made with respect to the river.

The latest project, the Greenbelt, is intended to conserve the river and its banks, as well as to make it once again a place of beauty, a place where one can find refreshment and recreation.

The history of the occupants and their relationship to the mighty Des Moines River and the adjoining lands through the years is the theme of this book. A knowledge of its history serves to enhance one’s enjoyment of the area, as does beholding the beauty of its waterways and forests and prairies.

Researching the history of the Greenbelt has been an absorbing experience. Many Iowans, no matter where they live, know much more about the eastern part of our State than they do of the Des Moines River belt and perhaps believe that there is nothing of interest here. They are mistaken. The wealth of interesting, exciting lore right under our feet, as well as the record of courage arid creativity and plain hard toil of those who passed this way before, form an inspiring story. It is awesome and humbling to realize the extent to which we are the rich inheritors from those who ploughed the prairies and drained the wetlands, established the towns and the railroads and highways, and founded the schools and churches. It is important that their history be recorded and preserved.

Every group of people who lived along the Des Moines River figures in this history. Prehistoric people came first, and their tenure was the longest, thousand of years, in fact. Through such a long span of time, tremendous changes in climate, in flora and

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fauna, and even geological features occurred. Their way of making a living changed through time in accordance with these physical changes.

When white settlers appeared on the scene, they recorded the ways of the Indians of the area, who were therefore no longer referred to as prehistoric people. The Ioways, the Sac and Fox, and the Sioux were the Indians the settlers encountered, each people making a living out of the environment in their own way. Indian ways of life were incompatible with the white settlers’ ideas as to how the land should be used, and in a very short tune, the whites displaced the Indians.

The history of the white people in the Des Moines River area is divided into three major periods, as related to three great changes in technology~—(1) the horse and wagon (supplemented by river boats), (2) the railroad, and (3) the automobile. The inhabitants used the resources of the land and river somewhat differently in each of these periods, depending on the transportation they had available at the time, Significant social changes and changes in ways of living accompanied each change in technology.

The town is an important settlement unit and a convenient one for scrutiny. Of the many towns analyzed, a few are picked out for particular scrutiny—Red Rock, the oldest of the river towns and one associated with important historical events; Fraser which is the embodiment of railroad, coal, and river lore; and Stratford, which has done a fairly successful job of fighting the Midwest phenomenon of small town decline. The impact of larger cities, Des Moines in particular, is discussed during various different periods of the area’s history.

I wish to express my gratitude to the Advisory Committee of the Des Moines Recreational River and Greenbelt under whose auspices I wrote this book and whose members gave me many helpful suggestions.

I am grateful to the many warm, friendly people who have furnished information, guided me about their towns, invited me into their homes, lent me their prized centennial histories, and made photos and other sources of information available to me.

I especially wish to thank Dorothy Bean, Marjorie Blair, Iva Miedema Greta Mount, and Mildred Steele, Pella; Alice Walker, Swan; Marvin and Mary Jo Johnston, Geraldine Conklin, and others.

The Greenbelt (as it will henceforth be called) Project was authorized by Public Law 99-88 (August 8,1985) and subsequent legislation. It is designed to develop, operate, and maintain a recreational and Greenbelt area along the Des Moines River, between the point where the Des Moines intersects with U.S. Highway 20 at Fort Dodge, downstream to the point where the river intersects with U.S. Highway 92, about 6 miles below the Red Rock Dam in Marion County.

Subsequently, the project was expanded to include a strip along the Boone River from Webster City downstream to its confluence with the Des Moines River (Boone Forks).

The Greenbelt corridor consists of beautiful natural areas as well as a variety of man-made recreational areas such as Lake Red Rock and Saylorville Lake. The Greenbelt goal is to coordinate existing and future Federal, State, and l~cal projects in order to maximize their attraction both for recreational use and for economic development.

The Greenbelt Project as planned by the Rock Island District Corps of Engineers in consultation with State, county, and local groups, includes streambank stabilization, tree plantings, bicycle and hiking trails, boat ramps, construction and maintenance of facilities in park areas, a marked Scenic Road route, the conservation or reconstruction of historic sites as wel1 as other projects yet being considered.

In short, the Greenbelt project aims to preserve the natural treasures of the Des Moines River belt and to enhance its recreational attractiveness.

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