History of Pikes Peak State Park 

Jim Farnsworth, Park Ranger
Pikes Peak State Park
15316 Great River Road
McGregor, IA  52157-8558

 

Introduction

Welcome to northeast Iowa, welcome home, that’s what greets me at Strawberry Point as I turn north from State Highway 3 onto 13.  There is no sign; it’s just the feeling I get as I head north and east on 13.  The highway bends and rises and falls, like a big ribbon that has fallen from the sky and left to lie as it landed.  No more roads following the north-south surveyors section lines, straight and flat to the point of boredom.  The people who routed roads in northeast Iowa had to be a little more artistic.  Look at an Iowa road map; compare the lines that depict the major highways in the rest of the state with northeast Iowa.  In the northeast corner the highways look like abstract art.

Home for me is Pikes Peak State Park on the eastern edge of a unique part of the state called the Paleozoic Plateau (Fig. 1) by naturalists. “The Peak” as it is locally known is located just south of McGregor on a bluff about 500 feet above “The River” (as the Mississippi is known locally).  It offers modern camping, picnicking and a place from which you can view and explore an area rich in history and prehistory.

The term Paleozoic refers to the old bedrock units that influence the landscape in northeast Iowa.  Iowa’s bedrock units are tilted from northeast getting deeper towards the southwest.  They have been exposed to erosion and weathering longer than just about any other part of the state.   It’s scenic hills and valleys escaped the flattening influence of all but the earliest glaciations during the ice age.  But even though most bypassed the area, the glaciers had a profound influence on the Paleozoic Plateau.  Great torrents of melt water ran through the area during warm periods and as the ice age came to an end.  At these times streams and rivers carrying large volumes of water, gravel and stones from the retreating ice cap, ripping through landscape, cutting through the hills and feeding a raging torrent we now call the Mississippi.  The Mississippi valley was at one time as much as 150 feet deeper than its present level.  Cold times would find the scoured river valley dry and exposed to the westerly winds that would carry the lighter sands away depositing them on the east bluffs of the valley.  The result of this sand deposition can be seen on the Wisconsin bluffs.  The sandy soils are drier giving rise to more hillside prairies and fewer trees especially on south and west oriented slopes, which are more exposed to the drying effects of sun and wind.  The eroding melt water fed rivers and streams exposing the geologic history of the state as recorded in the  underlying rocks. The rocks show, as interpreted by geologists, that in the past Iowa’s  landscape was at times a seascape. 

Rocks Exposed in the Park

The oldest exposed rock formation at the Peak is the Jordan Sandstone, which is believed to be over 500 million years old.  The sandstone was deposited as advancing and retreating beaches.  The Jordan sandstone is an important aquifer and the park water supply is draw from it from a well that is 560 feet deep.  We will see this unit in McGregor during this field trip.

On top of the Jordan Sandstone are beds of the Prairie du Chien Group, some of which are reef-like in structure.  At the end of Prairie du Chien deposition these beds were exposed as evidenced by the eroded surface upon which the St. Peter Sandstone was deposited.

The St. Peter Sandstone (Fig 2) is of local interest.  The sandstone is richly colored with reds, oranges, browns and purples coursing through a mostly buff to pure white colored matrix of quartz sand.  The sands were stained by deposited minerals mostly iron.  The colored sands of the St. Peter are a source of material for area artists’ sand paintings done in bottles.  Examples can be seen at the McGregor Historical Museum.  (Read more about this art in the article on Andrew Clemens Sand Art in this guidebook).

The Platteville and fossil-rich Decorah formations lie on top of the St. Peter.  The Decorah Formation was deposited in a near-shore environment with periodic supplies of mud and high biologic activity.  The mud gave rise to impervious shale units of the Decorah Formation and provide the year-round water source for picturesque Bridal Veil Falls.  Groundwater percolating vertically starts to travel horizontally when it comes to the impenetrable Spechts Ferry Shale and seeps out of the valley walls above the falls.  The Platteville Formation’s McGregor Member (which is below the Spechts Ferry Shale) is very resistant to erosion and thus forms the ledge of Bridal Veil Falls. 

The Galena Limestone is of local importance. This formation is just below or at the surface and is around one million years old.   Water carrying acids from decaying vegetation percolating through this formation dissolved the stone, giving rise to the caves and sinkholes of the area.  Known as karst topography, this is more evident west of the park where groves of trees in the middle of fields indicate sinkholes where a cave roof has collapsed, and at the privately operated Spook Cave.  The cave is west of McGregor on US highway 18 and offers a unique tour by boat.

Pre-History of Pikes Peak

 The unique nature of this part of the world was recognized by humans when they first set eyes upon it in the dimness of prehistory.  Life was good here for the first inhabitants.  Food and fiber were abundant, the rivers created travel and trade opportunities.  The area that is now Pikes Peak State Park was the land of several tribes of Native Americans.  Many groups used the river as a travel and trade route (with tribes from other areas).  In the late 1600s, explorers found an Indian village in the nine-mile prairie where the present-day city of Prairie du Chien is found.  The Fox and Sac lived and farmed the land near the river and hunted in nearby hills.  The Dakota lived west and north in what is now northeastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota.  The Winnebago tribe lived in river valleys across the river in present-day Wisconsin.  For the most part, Native Americans lived in campsites and small villages near waterways.  The Winnebago, Iowa and Otoe have spiritual ties to the mounds and mound building culture.  Many groups came to the area for trading and gatherings.  These included the Potawatomi, Menominee, Chippewa, and Ottowa.  From around 800 to 1200 AD these peoples celebrated their good fortune and their belief in the oneness with mother earth by constructing earthen mounds on the landscape.  Many are simple conical or linear shaped structures but others are more elaborate effigies of area animals.  A bear effigy resides in the picnic area at the Peak, just a short easy walk from the parking area.  For an in-depth interpretation of the mound builders culture it is suggested that you visit Effigy Mounds National Monument, just 4 miles north of Marquette on Iowa 76.  An audio-visual presentation, a museum and ranger-guided hikes help to bring this part of the area’s history to life.

The first Europeans to visit the area were Father Marquette and Louis Joliet.  They arrived one June day in 1673 via the Wisconsin River, which empties into the Mississippi just opposite the lower main overlook at Pikes Peak. Leaving the great lake Michigan they paddled their canoes up the Fox River to the Grande Portage, now Portage, Wisconsin, where they accessed the Wisconsin.  Native peoples, early explorers, and trappers used the Mississippi much as it is used today, trading, trapping, fishing and transporting their goods.  In 1685, Nicholas Perrot established Fort St. Nicholas near present-day Prairie du Chien to protect the French interests in the fur trade.  Pierre Paul Marin built a trading fort near the mouth of Sny Magill Creek in 1738, 4 miles south of Pikes Peak State Park, for trade with Sac, Fox and Winnebago Indians. An Indian trail that extended west across present Iowa was also located in this area.

In 1781, Michael Brisbois, the first independent fur trader to live in Prairie du Chien, established a good working relationship with the Indians and the area soon developed into a profitable fur trading post.  A man by the name of Cardinal built a grist mill across the Mississippi River from the present day Effigy Mounds Monument in Mill Coulee.  He traded with the Native Americans exchanging grain from his mill for furs. The primary furbearer that trappers caught in this area was the beaver.  The fur was used for fur felt hats in France.  Other furs gathered included mink, muskrat, otter, wolf, raccoon, and fisher from the far north.

John Jacob Astor set up a post of the American Fur Company at Prairie du Chien in 1808 on St. Feriole Island.  This corporation was important during conflict between the French, British, Americans, and Indians. Joseph Rollette managed the American Fur Company.  In 1826, Hercules Dousman became John Jacob Astor's agent and in 1843 built the "House on the Mound."  Dousman and his descendants acquired considerable wealth, which was used to purchase land and bring the railroad to the area in 1857.  The Villa Louis State Historic Site (Fig. 4) includes the country home of Hercules' son, Louis, built in 1870, a fur trade museum and this historic Brisbois House, all located on St. Feriole Island in Prairie du Chien.

Military Activity in the Pikes Peak Area

 With the acquisition of the Louisiana territory in 1803, giving the fledgling United States claim to land on both sides of the Mississippi, exploration and finding the source of the river became important.  In 1805 Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was dispatched from St. Louis to do just that.  On January 31,1806 Pike and his men reached the frozen Leech Lake, MN and declared it the source of the great river.  In 1805, on his way up the river, he selected the bluff that is now Pikes Peak State Park as a possible site for a fort.  With its commanding view of the river valley below it was a good choice.  Possibly considering the difficulty of supplying a fort perched on this bluff, Washington chose a site on the floodplain just to the north and east.  Fort Crawford was built at a settlement known as Prairie du Chien. The inhabitants of Fort Crawford were subjected to floods and malaria and over the years the fort was moved three times to its present location on S. Beaumont Road where tours are given.  Maybe the rigors of hauling supplies up the bluff would have been preferred.

Later, in 1807, Zebulon Pike was commissioned to explore the west giving rise to the more famous Pikes Peak in Colorado.  I used to joke that old Zeb must have been pretty full of himself, going around naming all these places after himself.  I met a Pike historian from Colorado at the Peak this summer and mentioned this to her.  She said quite the contrary, Pike was quite unassuming and quiet and that the Pikes Peak in Colorado, at least, was not named by Pike but by his men. And while he was not able to scale the Colorado mountain, history records that he did make it to the top here. 

A log fort was completed on St. Feriole Island by Americans in June of 1814.  Fort Shelby, as it was called, was captured by the British the following summer and was renamed Fort McKay, in honor of the British commander.  When the British left, the fort was burned and replaced by Fort Crawford in 1816.  Flood waters made this location a poor choice for a fort site and this fort was later allowed to rot away.  The military reservation for Fort Crawford included Pikes Peak and extended south to Sny Magill Creek.

In 1825, the U.S. government called for a Great Council of Plains and Woodlands tribes in an attempt to put an end to unrest and establish tribal boundaries.  As many as 10,000 Native Americans and U.S. Army personnel met on St. Feriole Island.  By 1830, a "neutral zone" was established as a buffer area between the tribes.  This neutral zone was located north of the present State Park.

Congress authorized the construction of a new fort in Prairie du Chien, this time to be built on a terrace above the flood plain.  The timbers for the new Fort Crawford came from a sawmill site located three and one-half miles up the Yellow River, north of Pikes Peak.  Colonel Zachary Taylor, commander of Fort Crawford at the time, sent Lieutenant Jefferson Davis to oversee the sawmill.  Evidently this was an attempt by Colonel Taylor to break a budding romance between Jefferson Davis and Taylor's daughter Sarah.  Wood from the sawmill was also used to build the Yellow River Mission School three miles west of the present Effigy Mounds National Monument.

Fort Crawford figures into an intriguing story of buried treasure at Wyalusing State Park, in Wisconsin across the river from Pikes Peak, dates back to the fur trading era.  As the legend goes, bandits stole a quantity of gold from payments at Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien.  With soldiers pursuing them, the thieves were forced to bury the loot.  Only one of the bandits survived and then just long enough to give a general description of the hiding place.  If we can believe this tale, tens of thousands of dollars in gold lies, “…on a high bluff near the mouth of the Wisconsin River.”

In 1840, a military road was built to connect Fort Crawford with Fort Atkinson forty miles to the west. Supplies were taken up the military road in wagons pulled by teams of mules.  Fort Atkinson was built to protect the Winnebago Indians from rival tribes. In 1837, the Winnebago tribe was moved from Wisconsin to Iowa.  The military used the road until 1849 when Fort Crawford was abandoned.  Pioneers continued to use the road until 1860.  The old military road that passed Pikes Peak State Park along the Mississippi River is still visible where it passed through the South Unit of Effigy Mounds near the Yellow River.
 

Commerce and McGregor

 In 1837, Alexander MacGregor and Thomas Burnett established a ferry boat landing along the Mississippi River at the mouth of Bloody Run Creek just north of Pikes Peak.  This landing eventually became one of the most important shipping depots west of Chicago (Fig. 4).  In 1847 MacGregor hired a surveyor to plot out a size-block area, which later became known as McGregor upon its incorporation in 1857.  McGregor grew rapidly, becoming known as “Gateway to the West”.  Its colorful history included the near lynching of a railroad official by unpaid workers at the present American House; floods; and fires.  The boys of the local Ringling family, who went on to found the Ringling Brothers Circus, spent their formative years in McGregor back yards.  Jesse James once visited the Moody farm south of town; and the steamboat shipping office of the colorful Diamond Jo Reynolds still stands in McGregor and is listed in the National Historic Register.  The 20-room mansion built by business tycoon William Huntting (Fig. 5), considered one of northeast Iowa’s finest examples of 19^th century architecture, adds another page to McGregor’s unique in historical lore.

Origins of Pikes Peak State Park

 The core of Pikes Peak State Park is a 960 acres that was part of a parcel of land once owned by Martha Buell Munn.  She was the granddaughter of James MacGregor, brother of Alexander MacGregor was the founder of the nearby town of McGregor, two miles to the north.  The Pikes Peak portion of these parcels was always a favorite family picnic spot and the McGregors’ and Munns’ protected it from being logged for firewood to feed the hungry riverboat boilers.  Several old oaks in the picnic area, estimated to be over 300 years old, bear testament to this protection.  A relative of Martha Munn, James B. Munn of New York, first offered the land as a gift to the Upper Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Refuge in 1928.  The original gift consisted of Pikes Peak, Point Ann, McGregor Heights, and a few smaller parcels of land.

The recipient of the donated lands was the federal government, and the deed restrictions stated that the land must be used for a park.  At the time there was sentiment that a National Park be created along the Mississippi river, but before anything was done about this proposal the Great Depression struck.  When the social programs of the Thirties were instituted to get people back to work Iowa was ready.  With visionaries such as McBride, Pammel and Shimek a state park system had already been designed.  Several parks were already on line others were in advanced planning stages and more areas to be considered identified.

Because the Iowa Conservation Commission was at the forefront in developing a state park system, the federal government gave, by act of Congress, the Munn property to the State of Iowa.  Originally there were three separate parks considered for the Munn lands.  Pikes Peak, Point Ann on the southern boundary of McGregor, and McGregor Heights on the bluff on the north edge of town.  In the mid Thirties work at the Pikes Peak portion was commenced by a Civilian Conservation Corps company that was originally based in Des Moines.  The company had spent some time just across the border in Hokah, Minnesota, before being moved to McGregor.

Figure 7. A two-tiered overlook was recently constructed at Pikes Peak, providing a full access view of the scenic river valleys     Point Ann, McGregor Heights, and the other parcels have not yet been developed.  In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the Iowa Conservation Commission started acquiring the private lands in between Pikes Peak and Point Ann.  The park now consists of 960 acres with 13 miles of trails winding through it. More recently Pikes Peak has undergone a major renovation.  Two overlook structures (Figs. 7 & 8) were constructed, providing access to the magnificent views of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers to all.  Concrete walks were constructed to connect many of the parks attractions to the parking area, and a series of boardwalks and improved trails give firm footing and easy access to many other areas, such as Bridal Veil Falls and the Bear Mound adjacent to the picnic area.

Figure 8.  The view looking east across the Mississippi River and up the valley of the Wisconsin River.  Wyalusing State Park is on the bluff to the right.   The overlooks and boardwalks are kept clear of snow in the winter.  The picnic area has a playground for the kids, modern toilets and a park store for snacks and souvenirs.  The 77 unit camp area has modern shower and rest rooms facilities (open May through October), non-electric, 30 and 50 amp electric sites and 23 camping pads requiring very little leveling.   Come and explore. You’ll known when you arrive, no sign needed.

 

Information Sources

Information for this article came from a number of sources including:

· Common World inc.
http://www.cwspot.com/index2.html

· Friends of Wyalusing
http://www.wyalusing.com/history.htm

· Geology of Clayton County
.by A. G. Leonard

· IGS Annual Report XVI – 1906 p. 213-318

· McGregor Manor Bread and Breakfast
http://www.mcgregorinn.com/

· McGregor/Marquette Chamber of Commerce

· Pikes Peak Interpreter – Summer 2000
by Brian Brummel

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from

Anderson, R.R. (ed.), 2000, The Natural History of Pikes Peak State Park, Clayton County, Iowa: Geological Society of Iowa Guidebook 70, p. 61-67.