PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 63 



legislators, and of Seth Richards and other noted merchants. Resi- 

 dence in youth of U. S. Senator W. B. Mason, U. S. Senator William A. 

 Clark, Secretary of the Interior George W. McCrary, the author, Albert 

 Bigelow Paine, Judge <H. C. Caldwell and other notables. Excellent resi- 

 dences of different eras; some constructed by expert Mormon builders in 

 1846 who later achieved fame for Salt Lake City through their construc- 

 tion of the Tabernacle, its organ and of the Temple. 



VERNON Opposite Bentonsport; residence of Gideon S. Bailey who 

 once chose the marshalship of the U. S. District Court rather than the 

 Governorship of Iowa Territory. 



LEXINGTON Extinct town near the mouth of Rock Creek; a noted 

 rallying point in earliest days for claim hunters and adventurers. The 

 birthplace of Governor Ross of Texas. 



ROCK CREEK Flows into the Des Moines where the Des Moines re- 

 turns from the Ox Bow to its general southeast course, forming a ridge 

 from which was quarried stone first used in the present Capitol, but later 

 condemned and removed. 



COLUMBUS Up the river from Rock Creek; a rival of Lexington and 

 early home of Governor Stanard, of Missouri. 



RAPIDS In the river which Missouri claimed was the one intended 

 in the Missouri constitution to describe its northern boundary. 



DES MOINES CITY Rival of Port Oro but combined therewith and 

 renamed Keosauqua. 



KEOSAUQUA Famous from its foundation as a seat of progress and 

 influence in Iowa and National affairs. Once the residence of more men 

 of note than any other American town of its population. Earliest of ex- 

 isting court houses of Iowa, in continuous use from 1842 to present time. 

 Residences of extraordinary interest for historical association. First 

 bridge across the Des Moines River was erected here and that now in 

 use being older than any other. A dam, lock, steamboat landing and 

 power mill were erected here. 



PLEASANT HILL Now South Keosauqua; prosperous in old ferry 

 days. The hill affords one of the famous scenic surprises along the lower 

 Des Moines. 



PITTSBURG Originally Rising Sun, a famous ferry-crossing in Cali- 

 fornia travel days. Noted milling and distillery town. 



CHEQUEST CREEK A beautiful stream. The Chequest stone quar- 

 ries were near here and it was on this Iowa stone in the Washington 

 monument that Enoch Eastman's words were carved "Iowa, her affec- 

 tions like her rivers of her borders, flow to an inseparable UNION." 



OLD CHURCH TREE Above Chequest Creek, the great elm where the 

 first assemblage west of the Des Moines, in what is now Iowa, was held 

 for the worship of Almighty God. 



FOX ISLAND Noted fishing and hunting. 



LICK CREEK A most picturesque stream puts in here. 



KILBOURNE Once Philadelphia, early trading town and site of In- 

 dian camp. On opposite bank was a trading house of the American Fur 

 Company. For a mile upstream and down stream, the bluffs are beau- 

 tiful in every season of the year. 



