PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 61 



and accessibility that, with the guidance of maps or charts, the student 

 of Iowa's archaeological remains can be easily and inexpensively afforded 

 the most valuable field work. 



The rocks of the region present an interesting and valuable field for 

 study and for scenic enjoyment, and are always within a few rods of the 

 places for eventual road construction, and they are of the best quality 

 for that use. 



The water features are by nature limited to the stream itself and ad- 

 jacent springs. By eventually damming the affluents of the river, arti- 

 ficial reservoirs for industrial or for pleasure purposes are easily possible. 



The scenic and scientific character of the area then, though above but 

 barely touched, would be sufficient to warrant the acquisition of the 

 necessary lands to make of this stretch of the Des Moines River a public 

 park. ^ 



But neither the scenic nor scientific qualities of this area are its sole 

 consideration. If those were not respectable qualities, the historic char- 

 acter of that stretch of the lower Des Moines would, if understood, de- 

 mand that the grounds should be rendered more easily accessible, and 

 that the vanishing information concerning it should be fixed in texts on 

 tablets and maps. Relatively it is as interesting as the Hudson and 

 more romantic than the lower James. 



This stretch of the Des Moines River crosses that part of the state 

 known as "The Black Hawk Purchase." It is the strip of land ap- 

 proximately forty miles wide west of the Mississippi River which was 

 wrested from the Indians after the Black Hawk War in 1832, and to the 

 west of which they were required to remain for the security of the Illi- 

 nois people. The strip was retained by the Government as part com- 

 pensation for its expenses in that war. It was the first of Iowa lands 

 opened for settlement. The part of the Black Hawk purchase in Lee 

 County which would be cut off if the Missouri boundary ran across the 

 Des Moines River and on to the Mississippi, is "The Half Breed Tract" 

 where land titles remained in litigation until long after the Civil War. 

 Hence settlers advanced up the Des Moines River to and above Farm- 

 ington where they had no disturbance from faulty title, continuing on up 

 the Des Moines River to a place below Eldon where the west line of the 

 forty miles strip separated white and Indian, and Indian rights remained 

 until they were extinguished on up to Ottumwa and west to the meridian 

 of Knoxville. 



The Des Moines River at that time was the principal prospect for 

 transportation to and from that interior of what, even then was known 

 would be the richest part of the proposed state. Awaiting the opening 

 of the new country, this stretch of the Des Moines River became the 

 most thickly populated and most prosperous of any region of equal area 

 in Iowa. Miore "cities and towns" were "founded" here and are now 

 gone than still remain. Upon the opening for settlement of the further 

 western Iowa, the group of enterprising people which had rushed in be- 

 tween Belfast and Eldon hurried on, and in effect "expanded," leaving 

 their name and character in the lower Des Moines valley, yet became fac- 

 tors, often features, in almost every city and state west that had begin- 

 nings between 1840 and 1858. 



