PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 111 



delight to those who tarry long enough to view the natural setting of the 

 city. Located on the Hawkeye highway, the Diagonal trail, the Jeffer- 

 son highway and Inter-State trail, Iowa Falls is fortunate in offering fa- 

 cilities for auto travel, while its four railroads radiate in as many di- 

 rections, making the city one of the most accessible in the state. 



If you ever tire of the beauties of the Iowa prairies, of which many 

 a poet has sung, and long for a glimpse of rocks and glens and romantic 

 spots that will stir the muse to expression, just pause long enough in 

 Iowa Falls to view her beauties and refresh yourself with the hospi- 

 tality always found within her gates. 



GEOLOGY OF HARDIN COUNTY. 

 By Samuel W. Beyer, Geologist. 



The Iowa river has its source in the lakes and ponds of Hancock 

 county, enters- Hardin county near the middle line of Alden township 

 and takes a most sinuous southeasterly course across the county, en- 

 tering Marshall about two miles west of the east line of Hardin county. 

 Below its junction with South Fork, the Iowa flows through a broad ter- 

 raced valley, varying from three-fourths to one and one-half miles in 

 width, and has a flood plain averaging a half mile in width. The gravel 

 terrace measures twenty feet above the flood plain at Gifford, ten feet 

 at Union, and is scarcely recognizable beyond the Marshall county line. 

 The Iowa Central is built on this terrace. 



The stream meanders greatly over this broad alluvial flat. Indurated 

 rocks appear in places in the stream channel below the mill at Union, 

 and support the flood plain, rising above low water level, between Union 

 and Gifford. These facts would indicate that this portion of the stream 

 was extremely old. While it had apparently reached a base level some- 

 time since, it has done but little filling and at present is deepening its 

 channel slightly between Gifford and Union. North of the junction there 

 is a decided change in the landscape. The valley contracts sharply and 

 the flood plain is too narrow to be represented on a map of the scale 

 used in these reports. In this portion of its course almost no alluvium 

 has been deposited. The stream flows over bed rock through a gorge 

 whose walls are rock supported. The convex sides of the bends are often 

 marked by mural escarpments of red sandstone varying from forty to 

 sixty feet in height, crowned by drift bluffs which rise more than 125 

 feet above low water level. Beyond Steamboat Rock the sandstone 

 lodges are obscured by drift talus but the restraining bluffs lose none of 

 their precipitousness and range even higher than along the lower 

 course, attaining a height of at least 150 feet above the present channel, 

 between Steamboat Rock and Hardin City, and again between Hardin 

 City and Eagle City. These eminences are largely composed of glacial 

 debris. An impure limestone at the base of the bluff, near the Jackson- 

 Clay township line on the south side of the great bend at Hardin City, 

 forms a shattered ledge some eight to ten feet above the level of the 



