Loess Hills Overlook:
More than just a pretty view

---

by Abbey Klaassen

Eighteen thousand years ago something unusual happened. Every year, at winter's onset, an ancestor of the Missouri River deposited strange, finely-ground glacial soil along Iowa's western border. When the wind was strong, it whipped up these dust-like particles and blew them against the eastern bank of the river. Thousands of years of this process cumulated in the formation of giant hills made of wind-blown soil, or loess (pronounced "luss").

Since the birth of these "fragile giants," the hills have hosted myriad species, ranging from wooly mammoths to today's yucca plants. Native Americans left behind tools and burials, some dating back 5,500 years. Later, fur traders moved in, creating towns. Today's visitors cruise down the state's first scenic byway, anxious for a look at the continent's tallest loess hills. Meanwhile, commercial and private developers are drawn to the region's beauty and resources. The Loess Hills are in danger of losing their heritage.

The Foundation is taking a major step in the mission to preserve the Loess Hills' natural, cultural and historical identity by protecting a 133-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Murray Hill Scenic Overlook in Harrison County.

The importance of this purchase is twofold. First, it serves as a natural buffer to the south of the overlook, preserving one of the Loess Hills Scenic Byway's most popular vistas. Second, it ties together several significant Loess Hills sites - the historic town of Fountainbleau, the town's 150-year-old cemetery, Loess Hills State Forest, and the overlook - creating a larger area of protected land.

"The Murray Hill Addition connects a place of historical importance with a state forest that's really trying to build itself," said Bruce Mountain, land projects director with INHF. "It's that connection between natural and historical that's important."

The Iowa West Foundation provided the first major grant, $50,000, jointly to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and INHF. The Foundation is still awaiting news of public grant funds for the project. After funds are raised, ownership will be turned over to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the Harrison County Conservation Board (HCCB) will manage the land. TNC and the Loess Hills Alliance are also assisting with prairie management on the site.

Maintaining the quality of the Murray Hill Overlook is important for tourism, Iowa's third-largest industry. Murray Hill is described as one of the best views along the Loess Hills Scenic Byway. Right now little of the land around the outlook is developed, preserving the view. The new addition will ensure that, at least to the south, this view is maintained for posterity.

"Murray Hill is becoming one of those pearls. Every day more and more people stop to climb and check out the formation," said Tim Sproul, HCCB Director. "Due to the protection provided by the Foundation, we'll never see houses through that viewshed."

In addition to tourism, the site is important to those interested in local history. It borders the historic town of Fountainbleu to the east and surrounds Fountainbleu Cemetery, located along its southern border. Charles Larpenteur, a trader with the American Fur Company, founded the town in the 1850s and is buried in the cemetery.

Larpenteur wrote extensively about the American west, its native people, and trading. The Dictionary of American Biography called his life story, Forty Years a Fur Trader, "probably the most valuable document extant upon the fur trade of the Missouri."

The town site currently contains a home and barn built in the 1870s by Danish immigrants. Harrison County owns the homestead and the Harrison County Historic Preservation Commission manages it. They are working on restoring it for historic interpretation.

The new addition will serve as a permanent open space and wildlife habitat. It houses remnants of prairie species but will need management, such as cutting and burning, to remove non-native species.

Mountain added that the difficulty in trying to protect a large area like the Loess Hills is that buying up smaller, scattered parcels of land throughout the region doesn't make much of a dent. Most prefer the strategy employed in this project - join several existing pieces to create a much larger protected area. "Connecting scattered pieces is better both for human recreation and the ecosystem," he said.

"The addition is just so rich in natural resources, being on the front range of the Loess Hills," said Sproul. "And the fact that it's located on a scenic byway, it has that early fur trade history, and it's next to a state forest - you only get the opportunity to protect pieces like this once in a lifetime."


Abbey Klaassen is a Robert R. Buckmaster Intern from Drake University. She is a junior studying magazine journalism.