Take a Trip: Loess Hills National Scenic Byway South

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Visitors to the southwest corner of Iowa will find one of the most unique landscapes in the state at Waubonsie State Park.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Founded in 1926, the park rests along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, a nearly 5,000-mile trail celebrating the Lewis and Clark Exhibition that explored the western U.S. from 1803 to 1806.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] The 2,000-acre Waubonsie State Park is named after Chief Waubonsie of the Pottawattamie Native American tribe.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] The distinctive soil of the wind-sculpted Loess Hills raises the western Iowa park nearly 200 feet above the flat plains of the Missouri River Valley and holds a place for eight miles of hiking and another eight miles of multiuse trails.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Portions of the trails provide interpretive opportunities for adventurers to learn more about the park's important plants and trees.

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[Kohlsdorf] Journey down to the southwest corner of Fremont County to enjoy a few sips of nostalgia in the town of Hamburg.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] One of the anchors on Main Street Hamburg is Stoner Drug.

Besides fulfilling the medications needs for local residents, the pharmacy also offers sweet treats in a traditional way.

♪♪ [Megan Benefiel] Stoner Drug was started in 1896 by Crosby Stoner.

That is where we get our name.

Soda fountains are found in pharmacies -- there's a few different reasons -- a lot has to do with just that feeling of community, a place for people to gather and especially during the '20s during Prohibition bars were closed down, so pharmacies decided hey, let's give people a place to gather.

And they were also able to offer drinks and things, which there were some thought that was medicinal properties of like seltzer water, things like that, and it just sort of evolved into the ice cream treats you see today.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] The marble top soda fountain has been witness to much of southwest Iowa's history from Hamburg's early growth as an agricultural hub to repeated devastating floods that threatened the town.

Stoner Drug and its lunch counter have been a place for connection.

[Harry Adams] From my childhood days, Stone Drug has been here.

And now that we're older adults it's still a real focal point for hanging out and eating lunch.

[Kohlsdorf] The soda fountain features a standard lunch counter fare with malts, shakes, sandwiches and sodas.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] A visit to Stoner Drug in Hamburg will yield a strong dose of fond memories.

♪♪ [Megan Benefiel] I grew up in Hamburg.

I've lived here my whole life.

And my favorite part of having the soda fountain is that every day when I come to work, I can remember coming in to have coffee with my grandpa when I was a little girl.

It's just, it's a piece of your life.

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[Kohlsdorf] Each summer for more than 100 years, rodeo riders have pulled off in Sidney for a shot at glory.

So, let's cinch our gloves and saddle up for a look at this southwest Iowa tradition.

(singing national anthem) (crowd cheering) Rodeo fans, are you ready?!

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Each summer, the county seat of Fremont County grows in population more than tenfold as cowboys and cowgirls come together to celebrate a century old event woven into the fabric of local culture.

♪♪ You might not want to arm wrestle that cowboy!

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Held annually in late July and early August, Iowa's Championship Rodeo welcomes around 17,000 fans to the town of Sidney for three days of bucking, riding and roping, a celebration of both the rodeo's and the town's history.

♪♪ [Dustin Brake] First and foremost, it's not just a rodeo, it's more family entertainment.

We're here to entertain families and we have something for everybody.

Being a small community, everybody takes pride in this thing.

If you grew up in Sidney and you're still living here, you know what the rodeo is about and how fun it is, so you just want to keep it going.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] While the Sidney Rodeo honors the cowboy lifestyle, the competition is also serious business for members of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

[Dustin Brake] This is a part of the PRCA sanctioned events and that means that all of the money earned here goes towards their earnings to get them to Las Vegas at the end of the year for the world championships.

[Kohlsdorf] The Sidney Rodeo has been an annual event organized by the American Legion for just over 100 years, honoring deep cultural roots for locals and delivering plenty of thrills for visitors who are brave enough to saddle up and hold on.

[Dustin Brake] The Sidney Rodeo brings some of the best athletes around and we get the best of the best every night.

Even if you're not a huge rodeo fan, there's something for you, and by the time it's all said and done you might end up a rodeo fan yourself.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Explorers in the Loess Hills Scenic Byway hunting for history can find plenty in the town of Tabor.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] In the late 1840s, a group of families traveled to southwest Iowa to establish a town and Christian college.

Leaders in the quaint community would soon become pivotal figures in national events.

[Harry Wilkins] Well, Tabor, Iowa was founded in 1852 by congregationalist families that came from Ohio and the town was caught up in events leading up to the Civil War, which included supporting the underground railroad.

Tabor was a small village at that time and the people who moved here thought that slavery was immoral and they would do anything they could to fight it.

[Kohlsdorf] One of the town's founders, John Todd, was a Presbyterian pastor and staunch abolitionist.

Todd gathered community members to establish a station for the Underground Railroad.

This got the attention of John Brown, an abolitionist fighting against slavery in the burgeoning state of Kansas.

♪♪ [Harry Wilkins] Reverend Todd and his wife Martha lived in this house and they became friends with John Brown.

John Brown used Tabor as a base of operations for his fighting in Kansas territory.

He stored weapons in this house.

He kept his men in the park.

He brought his wounded men here from Kansas to recuperate.

[Kohlsdorf] Today, the Todd House enjoys a more quiet time, appearing on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Tours of the Todd House are offered by appointment through the Tabor Historical Society.

[Harry Wilkins] Probably the biggest thing I hear most often is they just didn't know this was here and they were really excited about learning about the history.

♪♪ [Harry Wilkins] There aren't very many of these around.

In Iowa there are only four documented structures left that were used in the Underground Railroad.

And this is one of the best preserved we think.

So, if you're looking for an authentic place to visit that reflects the history of the time, this is it.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] The landscape surrounding the Loess Hills Scenic Byway entices travelers with sights found in only one other place on Earth.

Stretching from South Dakota to Missouri, the Loess Hills are living testimony to the work of glaciers tens of thousands of years ago.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] During the last Ice Age, glaciers crushed and ground the bedrock as they moved into the Midwest.

When the ice fields began to melt and recede, the Missouri River Valley was flooded depositing pulverized rock and other material in western Iowa, eastern Nebraska, South Dakota and Missouri.

As the flood waters receded, winds swept the finely crushed soil into the hills, making up Iowa's front range.

The Loess flower like material of the Loess Hills can only be found in one other place on Earth, in Shanxi, China.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Today, you can find travelers, explorers and artists taking advantage of the Loess Hills for exercise, education and inspiration.

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[Kohlsdorf] While nature deserves credit for the beauty of southwest Iowa's Loess Hills, dedicated volunteers deserve credit for creating immersive ways to enjoy them.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] The Wabash Trace Nature Trail rests on the bed of a converted railroad stretching from Shenandoah to Council Bluffs.

[Eric Dunlop] Yeah, I mean, it's a great trail.

It goes 62 miles from Council Bluffs down to the border.

It's a lot of trees, a lot of farmland, a lot of bridges and different things.

But once you're on it, you're kind of out in the middle of nowhere and so it's great.

[Kohlsdorf] Bikers and hikers use the trail to explore the countryside of four counties and to patronize local stores and eateries in the communities along the route.

♪♪ [Eric Dunlop] Minneola has been busy the whole time.

Silver City definitely they get a lot more, it's kind of hit and miss, things open and close.

Shenandoah for sure.

Imogene has got a place too.

And so yeah, it definitely helps.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Tobey Jack's Minneola Steakhouse is known as a must stop on the Wabash Trace Nature Trail.

[William Good] We purchased it in 2010, had it for the last 15 years.

We bought it because of the bike ride.

We ride bikes a lot and we've rode bikes down here and we saw how popular it was and how much fun it was to be around.

[Kohlsdorf] Small town business owners credit the trail riders for being a thread weaving economic vitality into rail side communities.

[William Good] It feeds a lot of small towns.

If it wasn't for the Wabash Trace, a lot of small towns wouldn't make it along the trail.

So, it's an asset, it's well advertised, people know about it.

The taco rides on Thursdays all summer long, it's one of the best rides out there.

[Kohlsdorf] In Imogene, trailside camping spots provide easy overnight stops with showers.

An interactive sculpture located at the trail head, invites users to learn more about Imogene's Irish heritage.

[William Good] You can come out, you can camp, you can ride the trail, you can go north, south, whatever way you want to go and hit small towns along the way.

[Kohlsdorf] Whether it's local history or local eateries, the Wabash Trace Nature Trail welcomes Loess Hills Scenic Byway travelers to explore southwest Iowa.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Enrichment opportunities can be found in many forms woven through the Loess Hills Scenic Byway.

Artists of all types have staked their claim along the byway to create a vibrant environment for art in southwest Iowa.

♪♪ ♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] In the town of Malvern, a former house of worship has been transformed into a beacon for art thanks to a local artist looking for potential in the building and his hometown.

♪♪ [Zack Jones] I needed a place to live, I needed a place to work and then a place I could open up the doors and host a show.

I was always drawn to the old Main Street two story buildings.

I moved back here without intention of maybe getting an old Main Street building.

But then there was a Facebook post about what could this old building be?

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Zack Jones, a Malvern native who returned to his hometown over a decade ago, envisioned Art Church Iowa as an amplifier for art of all kinds in southwest Iowa.

[Zack Jones] Once I saw a photo of this upstairs and what could it be, I was like this is a studio on steroids.

♪♪ [Zack Jones] I fell in love with the space.

This has a nice peaceful feel to it, natural light, room to move around.

Other than the amount of work that it needed and continues to need, it really kind of filled all my wants.

[Kohlsdorf] The desanctified structure is Jones' working studio by day and doubles as a multiuse exhibition space.

[Zack Jones] And I got it in my head right then and there, I thought well this would be a great place to do some really intimate singer songwriter concerts.

(nature sounds) ♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] A growing appetite for public art displays would branch out of Malvern and make its way across surrounding communities along the Loess Hills Scenic Byway.

♪♪ [Zack Jones] These towns were not that far apart, ten miles, maybe 20 miles.

I think southwest Iowa has a lot to offer between the communities.

That was kind of the idea with the art tour.

That's our slogan is connecting communities through art.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] For more than a decade, artists and their communities have signed on for the Southwest Iowa Art Tour the third weekend in September.

For two days, travelers can explore all kinds of art in over ten different locations along the byway.

♪♪ [Becca Castle Laughlin] We have everything from stained glass artists to your traditional what you might think of as painting, photography.

♪♪ [Becca Castle Laughlin] There's a lot of pottery.

There's a lot of artist demonstrations that happen along the art tour.

You really get that chance to visit with the artists, learn about their techniques, where they get their inspiration from, maybe even sign up for a class.

[Kohlsdorf] We're following the byway into Council Bluffs for a visit to the Hoff Family Arts and Culture Center, the home of PACE, Pottawattamie Arts Culture and Entertainment, a non-profit organization dedicated to building community with the arts.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Built in 1894, this warehouse was once home to McCormick Harvesting Machine Company.

Today, it serves as the center for Council Bluffs art and culture offering everything from performing arts to cooking classes.

I've signed up for a painting lesson that offers a new way to look at the Loess Hills.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] We are here with Kathy at the Hoff Center today.

And you're going to be my coach, my instructor I guess you could say.

[Kathy Fiscus] Yes, you bet.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay, so tell us a little bit about your experience here at the center.

[Kathy Fiscus] Well, I started here by being a representative in their speaker series.

After that, they said oh, could you teach?

Would you like to teach adults?

And I said, sure.

[Kohlsdorf] So, that's what we're going to do today.

We're going to paint one of these canvases of the Loess Hills.

[Kathy Fiscus] You and I.

You bet.

♪♪ [Kathy Fiscus] This is our inspiration painting right here.

We hope to end up with this particular look.

But I will guide you through the entire process.

We'll begin with our single canvas here.

And this represents the background, the foreground and the middle ground.

Those three elements are part of any photograph, any painting.

So, the background has already been done for us.

In this particular painting it's not of a specific location.

Notice this shape.

We'll talk about shapes.

But this particular shape is really important because it is seen all over the Loess Hills.

The Loess Hills in our area are actually dunes.

And so, when you think about blowing sand or blowing snow, we have a lot of history with blowing snow in Iowa, you can see these rounded areas.

Also, you can see these peaks.

I've seen this in my driveway a lot.

What happens is the wind comes up over, goes down into those valleys, and then it comes up again on the other side.

♪♪ [Kathy Fiscus] Brooke, here we are.

We're ready to do our painting now.

This particular canvas I have taken and added much of the detail to bring this much closer to our inspiration painting here.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay, so I'll kind of be filling in some of the details at the end.

[Kathy Fiscus] Absolutely.

So, I will begin with the highlights.

I'll take my palate here and I'll begin with the yellow.

And I'll be adding some of the highlights here.

♪♪ [Kathy Fiscus] So, one of the things we want to show is how indeed this area is almost straight up and down.

And I'm going to take a little bit of gray and add this curved part because these curves are very important in showing the direction of the wind.

[Kohlsdorf] That it goes over the hill.

[Kathy Fiscus] It goes over the hill.

So, now it's your turn.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay.

So, we've got some green paint here.

[Kathy Fiscus] And what I would suggest, you put your left thumb through the hole of the palate.

And what I would like to have you do is dab, dab, dab on the green paint and then perpendicular to the surface of the canvas dab, dab, dab, dab, dab, dab and follow these suggested areas where there has been erosion.

In those valleys it's moisture, which allows for more vegetation here.

There's vegetation all over, just like there's loess all over the world.

The next highest is in China.

But we are higher, deeper, weirder, odder and that makes the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway a famous place.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay, so that is my role today.

So, I'm going to dab and then dab on the canvas.

[Kathy Fiscus] Dab on the canvas.

[Kohlsdorf] Dab, dab, dab.

[Kathy Fiscus] Right, and follow that curve.

Yes.

Good.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Excellent.

[Kohlsdorf] Who knew.

[Kathy Fiscus] Yes.

And notice, you can leave some little gaps, which shows okay, it's not necessarily a hedge, it's plants, separate plants going down.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay.

♪♪ ♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Kathy, you've been a great instructor today.

This has been a lot of fun.

Thank you.

[Kathy Fiscus] Well, you did a great job, Brooke.

That looks exactly like vegetation.

[Kohlsdorf] Well, this has been so much fun.

And maybe not everyone who goes out to do some hiking is going to come home and create a picture of their own of the Loess Hills, but for you this seems to be a natural connection, doesn't it?

[Kathy Fiscus] I think there's a lot of inspiration in nature.

There is a lot of art in the area.

But just going outside, you feel better.

You feel inspired.

There's nothing like nature to help you feel like it's a good day.

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