96 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



and New Jersey have purchased the Palisades area, saved the famous 

 cliffs from spoliation, and, provided the people of both states with a 

 splendid park. Iowa has not yet purchased the Palisades of the Cedar; 

 but at least 100,000 .persons in the eastern part of the state are earnestly 

 hoping that this will be done. 



The Palisades area is located on the Cedar river between Cedar 

 Rapids and Mt. Vernon, 15 miles from the former and 3 miles 

 from the latter city. The entrance to the wooded area is within two 

 miles of the famous Lincoln highway. The Northwestern railroad and 

 the Cedar Rapids, Mt. Vernon and Iowa City Interurban both have sta- 

 tions within three miles of the cliffs. From Cedar Rapids the place is 

 easily reached by launch and motorboat. 



The cliffs are of the Upper Silurian dolomite, by McGee called Nia- 

 garan, and by Hall, Norton and Keyes, the Le Claire. For more than 

 a mile they run straight up from the water, from fifty to one hundred 

 feet high. The cliffs apparently consist of one massive layer of dolo- 

 mite, undivided by bedding planes, although there are variations in the 

 hardness and the texture of the rocks which produce great holes and 

 caverns, locally called "blowouts". On the east side of the river citizens 

 of Mt. Vernon, Cedar Rapids and Chicago have purchased land for sum- 

 mer cottages, along a small portion of the river front. But this inter- 

 feres very little with the aggregate area which is all wooded for a dis- 

 tance of more than a mile north and south and a width of half a mile 

 east of the river. On the west side of the river there are but one or 

 two houses. The whole area is well timbered with many fine old white 

 oaks, ash, elms, red and white hickory, black and white walnut, linden. 

 red and yellow oak, aspen and hop hornbeam. 



Drainage from the hills above, aided by springs from the base of the 

 cliffs have broken great waterways through this Le Claire escarpment. 

 These are locally called hollows, viz. Spring Hollow, Dark Hollow, Sleepy 

 Hollow, etc. At Spring Hollow you must walk from the river half a mile 

 up and across the creek seven times until you come to its source, a bub- 

 bling spring gushing from the pure sand at the base of a forty-foot cliff. 



These lofty cliffs are fringed with some fine specimens of red cedar, 

 some of them more than a foot in diameter. Down the northerly faces 

 of the cliff the Texus canadensis commonly called American yew, or 

 ground hemlock, sprawls luxuriantly, making a most beautiful picture 

 at all seasons of the year. This is said to be the most southern limit 

 for the growth of this interesting plant. 



On the brinks of the cliffs the shadtree breaks dnto clouds of snowy 

 sweetness, during April showers and sunshine, when the doors of the 

 springtime have swung wide open to admit the passage of birds and 

 flowers. On the rocky ridges the Viburnum dentatum, prickly ash and 

 the American bladdernut are mingled with the commoner Iowa shrubs. 

 Most of the area has never yet been pastured. In the lesser ravines, 

 as yet unprofaned by the hoofs of cattle, the cyprepediums, the Orchid 

 spectabile, and the Pogonia penduala, are still to be found by those who 

 search out beauty as a hunter seeks for game. 



