274 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



the laying down of its load along its margin, and which consists of 

 piled up mounds and intervening hollows, all without order or arrange 

 ment. This is known as the terminal moraine and along the eastern 

 margin of the Wisconsin drift it is developed as far south as Hardia 

 county, while on the western front it is conspicuous south to Carroll. 

 An inner moraine formed during the recession of the glacier, reaches 

 intermittently in a broad loop from Winnebago county south into Boone 

 and Greene and north again through Palo Alto and Emmet counties. While 

 it differs markedly from the driftless area of northeastern Iowa this 

 morainic area has many features of great charm. Its great mounds, 

 many of them bare and. gravelly, but some timber covered on their slopes 

 "or summits, the depressions among the hills, with an occasional lakelet 

 nestling calmly in quiet beauty, all of these make an assemblage which 

 cannot fail to impress him who has eyes to see and a soul to appreciate 

 nature's handiwork. One of these great mounds, Ocheyedan Mound, in 

 Osceola county, has long enjoyed the reputation of being the highest 

 point in Iowa and while apparently it must yield precedence, at all 

 events it is a landmark which is visible for miles around. Pilot Knob, 

 in northern Hancock county, while not rising so high above the sea, rises 

 twice as high above the plains about it as does Ocheyedan Mound, and 

 with its associated lakelet and timbered groves is one of the charms of 

 central Iowa. 



The beautiful lakes of north-central Iowa form another group of 

 geologic features which are intimately associated both in distribution 

 and in origin with these moraines, and which comprise one of the most 

 valued and attractive types of Iowa's localities of natural interest. Every- 

 one is drawn by the quiet beauty of a smooth lying sheet of water set like 

 a glistening diamond amidst low grassy shores or steeper wooded bluffs 

 And so it is that our lake regions appeal to all of us and we think of them 

 and their popularity with justifiable pride. 



A lake is one of the most evanescent and transient of natural phenom- 

 ena. A stream may expand and increase its tributary area until it grows 

 into a river; a mountain may, for a long time, at least, keep pace in its 

 growth with its decay; but the destiny of a lake, and especially of a 

 glacial lake, is as inevitable and as easily foretold as the destiny of a man. 

 And in comparison with the vast stretch of geologic time it is as short 

 lived. For this reason it is all the more imperative that we do all in 

 our power to conserve the lakes we have, to lengthen their lives so far 

 as in us lies, to preserve for the coming generations these gems of beauty 

 in our fields of emeralds. 



You are all familiar, by experience or by reputation, with the most 

 important Iowa lakes and I need but to mention them to recall beautiful 

 memories to your minds. In the eastern moraine Clear lake is without 

 a peer and indeed will bear comparison with any in all the lake region of 

 the central United States. In the western moraine, which is much more 

 extensive, the Okoboji and Spirit lake hold easy pre-eminence, but a 

 multitude of other smaller ones are held in warm regard by their local 

 admirers, and certainly lack nothing but size to make them noteworthy. 

 Storm lake is deservedly popular among its circle of friends. Wall lake 

 has attained a wide reputation through its great wall of boulders. The 



