Waubonsie State Park, located in southwest Iowa near Sidney, is now 52 percent larger. The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit conservation group, recently transferred a 646-acre addition to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
For those who haven't made the less than hour drive down south, Waubonsie is a wonderful state park, with not a lot of congestion. Â Beautiful place in the fall, I highly recommend a trip.
A great fall weekend day - Nebraska City to pick up jonathan apples and cider then off to Waubonsie for a family picnic, football, and a hike on the ridge trail.
I'll have to check it out someday. Anyone have any photos.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
With the acquisition, the DNR inherits a property that has been identified as a priority for protection by the National Park Service. The area is comprised of one of the largest woodland areas in the Loess Hills.
"This is a very, very special place," Ackelson said. "With the remote canyons and spectacular resources, it's definitely worthy of protection in Loess Hills. I have all the confidence in the world in entrusting these resources to the DNR."
While the park will remain open as is this summer, the DNR plans to close the park down for one to two years and install a two-way road system, modify existing cabins and establish an area where backpackers can hike in the wilderness. A portion of the Wa-Shawtee addition is reserved for Hole in the Hills, a camp exclusively for children who are terminally ill.
"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
More than three years ago, a southwest Iowa man made a land donation he hoped would pave the way for a camp for children with life-threatening illnesses.
The 65-acre gift was designed to be the foundation of Hole in the Hills, a camp for sick kids nestled in the Loess Hills of Fremont County.
But now that plan is in jeopardy. The culprit, camp organizers say, is the deed for the property. . . .
The group does own the ground - for now. But if construction of a camp is not completed by the end of 2012, the land will be turned over to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
That clause in the deed dates to 2005, when Silver City resident Edd Marshall gave the property near Hamburg, Iowa, to the Hole in the Hills group. . . .
. . . The clause, he said, was included to protect the land against sale to developers in the event the camp didn't get off the ground.
Several members of the group's board of directors operated for years without realizing the clause existed. It wasn't until a potential $250,000 donor examined the deed and balked at the conditions that the group realized big money donors might be scared off by the possibility that the land, and, consequently, the project, could all slip away.
The group has secured more than $250,000 in pledges, cash, and in-kind donations, but when big donors didn't come through, they were forced to close their office and fire their executive director. Without a full-time fundraiser, the 2012 deadline looms perilously close. . . .
In the meantime, the Hole in the Hills group is not giving up. Original plans for the camp topped $15 million. Now, the camp design likely will be scaled back, but they still hope to have something in place by 2012 to secure the land and allow children to experience camp in the Loess Hills, said board member Greg Sherwood. . .
"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
Waubonsie Park has long been one of my favorites in the area. Â It is a great way to finish off a day trip to Nebraska City, as it is only 10 minutes east of downtown Neb. City. Â There are lots of great picnic and hiking trails, and you can supposedly see 3 states from the top of some of the hills. Â Just an awesome place to visit in October as the leaves change color.
Roughly 200 people showed up for a First Day Hike at Wauonsie State Park in Fremont County, Iowa. I’m your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel and I went along for the three-mile hike in the Loess Hills .
