State Preserves

Whooping cranes and trumpeter swans nest in potholes surrounded by an ocean of tall grasses and flowers. Prairie chickens boom nearby. Gray wolves track bison; herds of elk graze. Farther to the east, mountain lions stalk deer along a forested river bank. Indians cultivate plots of maize near summer homes. They travel onto the prairies to hunt game, crossing bluffs dotted with mounds built by their ancestors. This was Iowa, center of the continent's tall-grass prairie, a few hundred years ago.

Less than a quarter of our woodlands and less than a tenth of one percent of our prairies remains today. But here and there, between farmland and city, bits of Iowa's past remain untrampled. Clusters of Indian mounds still dot bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. Ragged church walls, remnants left by Iowa's early European settlers, crown a hilltop. Golden saxifrage blooms near caves cold enough to be coated with ice in midsummer. Kettleholes were shaped when retreating glaciers abandoned an ice block. Lavender blossoms of pasque flowers mark the end of winter, as they have for centuries. These blossoms yield to a summer flora of more than 200 prairie species, including oneof the rarest plants in North America, prairie bushclover. Each of these irreplaceable lands and relics forms a part of a priceless heritage.

Iowa has a rich heritage. Exposed bedrock in the state includes some of the oldest rocks in North America. Our land surface displays features produced by some of the continent's most recent glaciers. We have sites where ice preserved in rocky talus slopes lasts through the summer, supporting species of plants and animals left over from the Ice Age. We have large tracts of prairie, numerous wetlands andwoodlands. These communities provide homes for many species of plants and animals. People have inhabited Iowa for 12,000 years. Evidence of their lives includes village sites, burial mounds, and hunting camps. European explorers came to Iowa in the late 1600's. They left little sign of their passing, but permanent settlement, beginning in the early 1800's, left extensive evidence.

Jasper Pool at Gitchie Manitou

Fort Atkinson State Preserve

These natural and cultural features are described in books and articles. They are more vividly understood, however, by viewing the landscape and the artifacts left here. Sites recording some of the most significant events of our past have been protected as state preserves. The state preserves system is designed to protect our heritage, allowing us and future generations to see the evidence of our past.

Starr's Cave State Preserve

Prairie Fire