IOWA PARKS 



Introduction 



In its seventy years existence as a State, Iowa has swept from 

 a scattered settlement to a thickly populated farm-land, dotted 

 with towns and cities. It received from the United States Gov- 

 ernment certain of the lands as a gratuity and the rest of the 

 lands have been received by the individual citizens, at a cost of a 

 dollar and a quarter per acre. The Indians had parted with them 

 at a return to themselves of about ten cents per acre. 



The state was settled up, its roads laid out, its cities planned 

 upon ox-cart conveniences and policies. The roads, therefore, 

 were treated as subordinate to the claims and farms, and were 

 only left where they were received from the Indian upon the natural 

 ground-levels, until settlement reached them from the eastward, 

 then they were torn from their ancient courses and bent around the 

 corners of "forties" and "quarters," regardless of hills that would 

 never grow less and water-ways that would never be filled and 

 grades that would never be fixed. The celerity of passage was sub- 

 ordinated to that of production. 



At such a time the reasonable day's journey for a man in a con- 

 veyance of any sort was twenty miles. His journeyings were limited 

 to necessity and to business. Iowa territory in 1840 embraced our 

 present state and most of Minnesota and North and South Dakota, 

 and contained 24,355 men, and 18,757 women. 



In 1915, the numbers had increased to 1,212,932 men and 1,145,134 

 women. Roads and vehicles now easily admit of journeying a hun- 

 dred miles a day. Culture a-nd habit as well as business and health 

 urge the individual frequently to leave off routine and engage in 

 pastime and out-door games. The impulse to respond increases and 

 will probably continue increasing so long as men shall work and play. 



But in 1919 there were not ten acres of public woods, water- 

 landings or open prairies, in the state, unless in cities. Not a game 

 could be played, a shot fired, a race run, a fly cast or a lunch spread, 

 unless in cities or on dusty highways unless the enjoyment was a 

 trespass or was through the consent of private owners. In 1919 the 

 acre which the Indian sold for ten cents and a pioneer bought for 

 $1.25, and the tax-sale purchaser secured for delinquent taxes has 



