CLIFF SWALLOW IN WESTERN IOWA 
59 
THE NORTHERN CLIFF SWALLOW IN 
WESTERN IOWA 
By BRUCE F. STILES 
STATU I'OXSKItVATin.V nKKM'KK 
curst ‘IL IJLL’KKS. IOWA 
During the past ten years the Cliff Swallow ( /V ■h-nHirfithm albifrotis 
nlhi/mns) has been mentioned in ‘Iowa Bird Life' 20 times. Except for 
a brief description of the colony at Bluffton by DuMont, it got into 
print only on Held trip lists, migration records and banding records. 
In the Bluffton colony DuMont found 275 to 300 nests on July II, 1934. 
In observations of summer birds in 1939, Robert B. Wallace in refer- 
ence to swallows says, “The Cliff Swallow was even less common, being 
found only in Palo Alto, Sioux and Tama Counties/' However he did 
not visit Missouri River counties. 
In the ‘Wilson Bulletin' there are II references to this swallow in 
the past six years. Most writers agree that its numbers were greatly 
reduced in the middle-west, but that it is now staging a comeback. It 
is interesting to speculate on how the nucleus that perpetuates any 
species is able to maintain itself in the face of factors that decimate 
large populations near the point of extinction. In the case of the Cliff 
Swallow it may have been the inaccessibility of certain breeding areas 
o man. 
Such an area lies a few miles southwest of Sloan, Iowa, and below 
Flower’s Island, along the Missouri River in a wild and rugged country. 
The region is characterized by heavily wooded hills and deep gullies. 
Sandstone cliffs overhang the river. Although not more than 25 or 30 
miles from Sioux City, it is comparatively little known. Indians of the 
Winnebago reservation still camp in its ravines. Fresh beaver cuttings 
may be seen along the river bank and Turkey Vultures wheel and soar 
above its rocky escarpments. Bird life is abundant. Here is the an- 
cestral home of the Cliff Swallow. The vast colony found here may 
have been a factor in maintaining its population on the prairies. 
On May 14, 1804, Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William 
Clark, accompanied by 43 men, set out from St, Louis to explore the 
vast territory just acquired by the United States through the Louisiana 
Purchase. 
On August 10 they stopped near a high bluff overlooking the Nebraska 
shore. They were told by Indians that near here there had formerly 
been a large Indian village of over 300 wigwams; that here were buried 
1000 members of the tribe, together with their chief, Black Bird, all 
having died from a scourge of smallpox which had threatened to wipe 
out the entire settlement. Chief Black Bird, himself deathly sick, and 
sensing the danger, ordered all the sick killed and the wigwams burned. 
Then he killed his wife and daughter and ordered that the remaining 
wan iois bury him alive astride his horse on top of what is now known 
as Black Bird Hill. That the Indians told this to Lewis and Clark we 
know to be true, and that they visited his grave, a mound 12 feet long 
and six feet wide. Indians there now, believe Black Bird's ghost ap- 
pears one night every year, and on that night they still congregate 
from miles around to witness the spectacle. 
Up to 1938 at a point above this spot the river surged over against 
the hills, where it was turned on edge by the sandstone cliffs and its 
entire width confined to a deep channel little more than 200 yards wide 
Through this it flowed with a strong and swift current that has always 
been referred to by the river men as “hot water”. 
This spot was easily identified by Audubon on his trip up the Missouri 
just 39 years after Lewis and Clark. On the night of May 12, 1843, 
accompanied by four men, Audubon tied up his boat and’ made 
