Hidden deep in the rolling landscape of Central Iowa, just far enough away from the buzzing cities to get overly crowded, lies a place that has been visited by humans since 1000 BCE. Long before the first hardened settlers and Fort Dodge was emplaced in the early 1850’s, earthen burial mounds were built by the Woodland culture in the unique but familiar box canyons that seem to periodically sink away from the prairie near the banks of the Des Moines River.
Early settlers coined the location Boneyard Hollow because of the piles of elk, buffalo, and deer bones found in piles along both sides of this unique box canyon that cuts a tight and unique path away from the Des Moines River and includes several waterfalls, along with a beautiful stream that cut through the sandstone to create this hallowed ground on which feet have been trodding for thousands of years. Later, in the early 1900s, it was turned into Dolliver Memorial State Park to protect its beauty for future generations, yet it still seems to be stuck in time and less known than many other State Parks, some even nearby, like Ledges.