PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 131 



wrought into strong contrasts of relief than found about the point 

 where we meet the three great prairie states of Iowa, Minnesota and 

 South Dakota. It is the very midst of the Great Plains which stretch 

 out unbrokenly from the Arctic ocean to the Mexican gulf. It is a part 

 of that tract which early French explorers and coureurs de bo is were 

 pleased to call the Gateau des Prairies; and which an English trapper 

 designated the Height of Land. For its size and altitude it is the most 

 scenic spot on earth. 



In this region are perfectly represented in minature some of the grand- 

 est relief features of every clime; Grand Canyon of Arizona, the Royal 

 Gorge of Colorado, the majectis escarpment of Glorietta, the pinnacled 

 Dolomites of the Eastern Alps, the rock-walled lakes of northern Italy, 

 the boiling rapids of Finnish Imatra, the leaping brooks of Norway, the 

 broad water-curtain of Niagara, and about all the boundless Girghiz 

 Steppes. In days gone by also there covered this land glaciers compared 

 with which existing ice-fields sink into utter insignificance. Formerly 

 lofty volcanoes poured fourth their floods of molten rock. Alone of all 

 great landscape types mountains are missing. Once these too were 

 here, but today they lie buried beneath the level of the singularly 

 flattened and monotonous prairies. 



At the present time there are, within the limits of the area of which we 

 speak, few traces in any of the relief features to indicate that there ever 

 existed here a high and mighty mountain range. The ground is perhaps 

 a little higher than it ig either to the east or to the west. The country 

 to the north is indeed a low water shed. Plain is the dominant topo- 

 graphic expression of the entire region. In all directions the eye has 

 unobstructed view for distances of many miles. Even the horizon is 

 unbroken by hill-florm or valley depression; it is as straight as the sky- 

 line at sea. Travelers at the railroad stations see afar a full half-hour 

 before the train arrives the black-smoke-cloud of the approaching loco- 

 motive. 



O the lofty mountains which once loomed up on the horizon every 

 vestige at the surface has long since vanished. They are leveled 

 to the sea, lost and forgotten. Today their foundations are slowly ex- 

 humed by the corroding action of stream and rain; and here and there 

 the old structures are being brought to view. The traces are many but 

 inconspicuous. Recently through means of the records of many deep 

 well borings and other data the height, extent and form of the ancient 

 mountain ranges has been fully figured forth, and its characteristic 

 features pictured out. This great earth wrinkle which sprang from the 

 sea in Mesozoic times extended from the east shore of present Lake 

 Superior southwestward beyond the path of the Missouri river. Medially 

 the rocks were bowed up more than a mile above the existing level of 

 the prairies. In their prime these Siouan mountains rivaled in scenic 

 beauty and grandeur the Adirondacks, the southern Appalachians or the 

 Juras of today. The Jove and Boreas and Vulcan each laid claim to 

 them; and each did his work of demolition quickly and well. They re- 

 duced the majestic pile of adamantine down to the very level of the 

 ocean, when Neptune gathered it to his own. 



