PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 25 



It is suggested by the Secretary that he ascertain whether 

 the Indians could and would be willing to give over to the State 

 of Iowa for at least an experimental period of five years, the use 

 of not less than fifty acres of their lands not now in cultivation 

 and lying as near to the Iowa River dam as they will allow, 

 reaching up to and over the high lands, and if there is no impedi- 

 ment to this arrangement whether the state would be empowered 

 to use such lands as its own upon a demand of a reasonable rate 

 of interest upon the actual value of the lands. 



The Board further considered that if no suitable arrangement 

 could be made to the satisfaction of the Indians and to this 

 Board, that then an area of some 50 or 60 acres lying contiguous 

 or convenient to said reservation, Lincoln Highway and supply 

 ditch of said reservoir, at a minimum cash value, be acquired. 



And it appearing that the question of providing and maintain- 

 ing the required flow of water for the use of the Cherry Company 

 implies a study and conclusion with regard to the difficulty and 

 expense of the necessary engineering and constructing elements, 

 particularly of the erection and maintenance of a suitable dam, 

 the dredging and deepening of the ditch and lake, and the widen- 

 ing of the embankments call for a considerable amount of tech- 

 nical investigation of which the Cherry Company already has 

 conducted a part, if not the whole, it is by the Board therefore 



Requested that the citizens of Tama accepting the assurance- 

 of the Board that the project of making a state park of the na- 

 tural and artificial elements investigated, procure and submit to 

 this Board a complete investigation and survey with plans, speci- 

 fications and estimates such as would be demanded by any 

 conservative and substantial person looking to the establish- 

 ment of this project as a commercial enterprise, and especially 

 for the construction of a suitable dam in the Iowa River, the 

 deepening and widening of the race or ditch, the widening of the 

 embankment and the dredging of the lake, all so itemized that the 

 Board would be advised with respect to one without necessarily 

 considering the other elements of this problem. Also, it is re- 

 quested of these citizens that they advise further, if the Board 

 finds it cannot recommend the taking over of the reservoir and 

 the ditch and the provision of the necessary construction and 

 maintenance to produce a suitable recreation enterprise, the 

 citizens would provide cost free to the State, the area of eighteen 

 acres south of the reservoir, so well suited for the creation of 



