210 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



ment at Sioux City which commemorates the longest and one of the 

 hardest expeditions the world has ever known? The Spirit Lake mas- 

 sacre with its horror equals the massacres through which the white set- 

 tlers of New York state and other eastern states passed. Some of these 

 outstanding places have been marked, but these mark only the beginnings 

 of properly preserved Iowa history. Plymouth Rock did not have 

 history till the Pilgrims set foot upon it. Neither did Boston in the be- 

 ginning. These two places may well be classed as the keystone of Amer- 

 ican history. Why? Because this history has been preserved and its 

 preservation has been kept constantly before the people throughout the 

 country- 

 It has been little more than one hundred years since actual preserva- 

 tion of historical places was begun by some of the states which are so 

 fond of pointing out this lack of state history to us. One hundred years 

 ago Iowa had yet to make her history, and now she has a history com- 

 parable to that of other states, and she has now but one thing to do to 

 prove it; that is, to conserve and cherish these places with pride and 

 credit to the soldiers of fortune, the pioneers who have made history for 

 us. Let us hope our present generation may be fully alive to the fact that 

 it is now or never that this work must be done. We must teach the 

 younger generation to appreciate this history and the importance of 

 preserving it and handing it on to future generations. 



In many instances places of historical interest to a given local com- 

 munity have been lost, and I believe that an attempt should be made to- 

 ward stimulating local preservation before more is lost. One of our 

 historians has to my mind illustrated the cause for this neglect throughout 

 the entire West by the following statements which may well apply to 

 Iowa alone. He says that the West may well be likened to a busy 

 housewife. It is early morning. She has fed her family and gotten the 

 children off to school and is in the midst of her morning dishwashing 

 when she hears a knock at the front door. Hastily she wipes her hands 

 on the corner of her apron and without a glance in the mirror, rushes 

 to the door to find friends from the east have arrived unannounced. Un- 

 hesitatingly and whole-heartedly she welcomes the comers. She leaves 

 her tasks planned for the day and prepares a feast of good things for 

 the table. The richest cream, golden butter, and the best of fried chicken 

 vie with each other to please these fastidious guests, nor is there any 

 evidence of anyone partaking sparingly. Late in the afternoon as the 

 tired woman closes the door upon the departing guests, she is amazed 

 and wounded to hear: "So unrefined such a lack of culture." 



The author of the above analyzes the statement thus: The West has 

 been so busy attending to its own business of feeding the world and 

 building up commercially that she has not acquired many of the so-called 

 social refinements of life. But that time has now passed with the "Wild- 

 ness of the prairies." Manufacture and business are now firmly estab- 

 lished and Iowa can and must advance socially as well as economically. 

 What better foundation can this advance rest upon than the preservation 

 of places of historical interest. History is no longer the dead inanimate 

 thing that those who seek only worldly wealth would have us think. 

 History is the foundation of life itself. Without past history we should 



