The First State Park
Why is establishing publicly protected land important?
A beautiful ridge of limestone, the Maquoketa river and endless stunning views made Backbone State Park the perfect first state park!
Transcript
[Abby Brown] Iowa has had state parks for over 100 years. Today, we're visiting the very first one ever established. Let's go check it out.
(Map marking Delaware County in northeast Iowa.)
In 1915, a man named Louis Pammel was appointed by Iowa's governor to investigate the establishment of state parks.
(A black and white photo of Louis Pammel. He has short dark hair that is combed to the side. He has a full thick beard and mustache. He is wearing a dark suit with a crisp white shirt and white bow tie.)
At the time, Iowans didn't really have a public place to enjoy nature, and nature needed Iowans to preserve natural, scenic, and historic places for future generations.
In 1920, Backbone State Park in northeast Iowa became our first natural space to be set aside as a state park.
It's easy to see how this diverse geology and beauty motivated its establishment.
[Nathan Detrich, Backbone State Park Manager] The reason Backbone is backbone, and the reason people wanted to protect it over 100 years ago and turn it into Iowa state park, is this ridge of limestone that we're standing on that runs down by the Maquoketa River. It's just a gorgeous landscape. There's spots where it's wide as a car and 50 or 80 feet down on either side - and the river's right there on either side, flowing in opposite directions.
The last glacier missed this corner of Iowa and Wisconsin and created this awesome landscape here that we have.
[Abby] There are about 20 miles of hiking trails throughout the park, with different views to take in along the way. One particular trail, the Barred Owl Trail, ends with a cave tucked right into the limestone of a bluff.
Limestone is also part of the castle-like boathouse that sits on the eastern shore of Backbone Lake. It's almost like a fairy tale.
Iowa state parks are now a treasured part of our experience living in Iowa. It's a good thing our ancestors worked to preserve these areas for us.
And Backbone State Park was an excellent first choice.
Every county in Iowa has at least one park. But the very first state park was established here in Delaware County.
Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.