About Consider A. Yarnes & family

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Posted online in July 2008

Cathy Engstrom/INHF

Don and Nancy Yarnes

Three generations of the Yarnes family kept this natural shoreline intact for 134 years.

Consider “Sid” Yarnes bought this land from the federal government in 1872. His deed was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant. Sid and Clara Lynn Yarnes homesteaded the land, living in a sod hut and interacting with the Sac and Fox tribe when they passed through on seasonal hunting expeditions.

Three generations later, Donald and Nancy Yarnes chose to sell the land for conservation purposes. This made it possible to permanently protect the shoreline and to restore the farm to wetlands and prairies — the landscape Don’s grandparents saw in the 1870s.

The following statement was given by Nancy Yarnes at the Anglers Bay dedication on August 2, 2008.

"1872. This land has been Yarnes family land since 1872 when the grant signed by President Ulysses S. Grant sent two brothers from New York State, West. Consider Albert Yarnes ventured here by wagon train and braved all that this frontier had to offer. He settled here among the early residents in Spirit Lake and lovingly tended this land and made it home. Generations of Yarnes family were born and raised here and left this land, they held so dear, virtually untouched. It is today much the same as it was all of those years ago when the Sac and Fox Indians would make their seasonal treks along the lakeshore. If you pause quietly, you may hear the shuffle of their steps, or feel the spirits of those that went before us, on the rustle of the wind."

"Don Yarnes loved this land and loved even more to tell the stories of his childhood on these very lake shores. He was proud of his heritage and fiercely guarded this legacy. These waters and this lake shore have remained unspoiled, their natural habitat undisturbed for generations. It was his sincere hope and intention, that by selling and dedicating this beloved parcel to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, this land would remain forever as he remembered it. That this land, Yarnes land, would be tended to and loved by many as he loved and protected it, for generations and generations to come."

-- written by Carole Hieber, Don and Nancy Yarnes’ granddaughter

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