Murray Hill Addition
awarded REAP grant

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This article was written and posted on INHF's website in October 2000.

Thanks to a newly awarded Resource Enhancement And Protection (REAP) grant, one of the most popular scenic views in the Loess Hills will remain scenic.

The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) received a $168,750 REAP grant to purchase the 160-acre Murray Hill Addition from a willing seller. INHF is a private, nonprofit group that protects Iowa's land, water and wildlife "for those who follow."

This addition lies along County Road F20 of the Loess Hills Scenic Byway and sits adjacent to the Murray Hill Overlook in Harrison County.

The importance of the addition is threefold. First, it serves as a natural buffer to the south of the overlook, preserving the scenic value of one of the Loess Hills Scenic Byway's most popular vistas. Second, it ties together several significant Loess Hills sites - the historic town of Fountainbleu, the town's 150-year-old cemetery, Loess Hills State Forest, and the overlook. Third, it creates a large area of protected natural 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 nature and history that's important."

In addition to the REAP grant, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) assisted INHF in winning a $50,000 grant from the Iowa West Foundation and the project received a $15,000 public grant from the Loess Hills Alliance. Additional funds were raised from individual gifts, including significant help from the Lowell J. Walker Fund in INHF's endowment.

Because INHF actually had to close on the land in January and grants were not awarded until late summer/early fall, costs were kept down with a no-interest loan from the Blufflands Protection Revolving Loan Fund. Ownership will be turned over to the IDNR and the Harrison County Conservation Board (HCCB) will manage the land.

Maintaining the quality of the Murray Hill Overlook is important to the region's tourism and economic development. Tourism is Iowa's third-largest industry and 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 that view. The new addition will ensure that, at least to the south of the overlook, the 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, director of the HCCB.

In addition to tourism, the site adjoins two of the region's important historical places. 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 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 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.

Finally, the land provides conservation benefits. The new addition will be preserved 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.

Sproul said that the property's future, with good management, would have valleys full of tall-grass prairie with woodland edges that transform into virgin prairie ridge tops.

"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."

Read more about Murray Hill in an excerpt from INHF's fall 2000 magazine. This project has also received a Loess Hills Alliance grant.

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