County to Dedicate Hamilton Prairie

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This article was written and posted on INHF's website in September 2005.

Adams County’s newest public land, Hamilton Prairie, will be dedicated at a public ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005. 

Neil Hamilton, whose ancestors began farming here in 1872, donated a 12-acre site in late 2004 to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF), a nonprofit conservation group.  As Hamilton planned, INHF then transferred ownership to the Adams County Conservation Board (ACCB).  The site has never been plowed and will be managed for hunting and other public recreation, wildlife habitat and conservation education.

The dedication will begin on Hamilton Prairie at 5 p.m., followed by a short ceremony and speakers at 5:30.  The Corning Chamber of Commerce will provide light refreshments.  Hamilton Prairie is located about eight miles east of Corning, on Redwood Avenue, about a half-mile south of Highway 34.  Longtime area residents might better recognize these directions: half-mile south and one mile west of old Stringtown.

“My family had a good life in Adams County and on the land,” said Hamilton.   “It is my hope that by restoring and securing even this small amount of prairie, children and many others, will get the same opportunity as I have had over the years to benefit from and learn more about nature conservation in Iowa.” 

Hamilton, who is a professor of agricultural law at Drake University and a INHF board member, also said he hopes to support an education program to help local area school children visit the prairie and learn more about nature and the responsibility everyone has to protect it.

The property appears to have escaped the touches of a plow for over a century.  Hamilton said it is unclear why the land remained unplowed other than the fact that his family always had cattle and used the site as a pasture close to the house.  Adams County plans to restore the land completely to tall grass prairie as in the 1870s when Hamilton’s family first acquired it.

INHF is a non-profit, conservation organization that protects Iowa’s land, water and wildlife.  Since its founding in 1979, INHF has protected more than 85,000 acres of Iowa’s wild places—including prairies, woodlands, wetlands and watersheds.  This is INHF’s first project in Adams County.

“We are excited to be a part of this project and we can’t thank the Hamilton family enough for the donation,” said Mark Ackelson, president of INHF.  “It really goes to show that you don’t have to be wealthy give back to your community.”

For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.