54 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



box elder and soft maple. There are also such shrubs as coral berry, 

 snowberry, sumach, wild grape, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and staff 

 tree. 



One of the most interesting places in the region is Happy Hollow, wesi 

 of Tabor, the small stream emptying into Buckingham lake. This is a 

 narrow canyon with steep slopes covered with trees and herbaceous plants. 

 It is an interesting place and is worthy of preservation. The lower parts 

 of the hills facing the Missouri here have an outcrop of limestone, which 

 became exposed when the Platte river forced the Missouri to skirt the 

 bluffs on the Iowa side of the river. This limestone is rich in fossils. 

 A considerable area, five or six miles, has this limestone rock exposed. 

 There are few places along the Missouri river from Hamburg to the Big 

 Sioux river where limestone is thus exposed. Nature has done here on a 

 large scale what the human hand could not do. A number of interesting 

 plants occur on these limestone rocks, like ferns, violets, spring beauty, 

 etc. The lover of plants will always delight to roam over these rocky 

 woods. 



The Buckingham Lake is on the flat immediately adjacent to the hills. 

 It once covered a much larger area but owing to the silt carried from the 

 hills, has been filled up. With a little dredging work and diverting the 

 channel, a nice little lake, covering between 40 and 50 acres, may be 

 made and such a lake is urgently needed by the people of the region. 



Not much can be said about the historic aspects of the region. Some 

 things, however, may be noted. There are a series of fine Indian mounds 

 on the crest of one of the hills and correspond to some mounds on an- 

 other hill in Nebraska. There are numerous old Indian trails over the 

 hills. There is also much evidence of old buffalo trails, which later 

 were used by cattle. Mr. Harlan and Seth Dean will give this matter more 

 in detail. 



We must provide the region with some recreation places. I am told 

 that the people of Glenwood, Hamburg and other points, if they want a 

 little boating must go to Council Bluffs. These people are entitled to 

 some consideration and we should provide, not only the unique hills and 

 wooded canyons, but a lake where the family can spend a day in recrea- 

 tion. Southwestern Iowa is not provided with beautiful and scenic places, 

 such as we have in northeastern Iowa or in the lake region. There are 

 many places in the state that far surpass the Buckingham region in 

 beauty, but none surpass it in scientific interest. The proposed state park 

 in the region can be made really beautiful while nature has not given 

 the native material, except the hills and canons. Man can so provide and 

 improve it in places as to make it worth while. We must bear in mind 

 that thousands of persons live in the region, who really do not have an op- 

 portunity of going elsewhere. We need some uplifting force for this 

 community. The area to be included in this state park should be not 

 less than 1,200 acres, which would include Buckingham lake, the wooded 

 ravines, the loess bluffs and the limestone out crops. 



