Who would have guessed? Not I. Bears in the prairies of Iowa? I suppose it’s not that big of a surprise for those astute readers of history. Many of the early settlers here in Iowa would mention the black bears that roamed the river and timber bottoms.
If you’ve lived in the Midwest any amount of time, you’ve probably heard the name Black Hawk in some context or other. There are counties named after him, a war named after him. To understand who Black Hawk is, who the people were, and why you hear that name around this Midwest, we have to […]
It’s funny how we (humans) think we live in the age of enlightenment, have learned our hard lessons from our forefathers, and swear never to make the same mistakes again. But history would prove us otherwise. It seems like we learn something for a moment, but you know that old saying about history repeating itself. […]
It’s hard to under emphasis the importance of Iowa’s Driftless region from both a historical and current ecological perspective. It feels like 3/4 of the state simply doesn’t know it exists, or has never taken the time to get to know it. Yet it is the home, no the heart, of Iowa at its finest […]
I can still remember what I would call an idyllic upbringing as a young boy in this most beautiful state buried in the depths of the Midwest. To this day, I have never understood those lines in the movies where someone says, with much emphasis, that so-and-so Neanderthal person lives in Des Moines. I always […]
If there is one thing we can say about the upper Midwest, it’s that we’ve had our fair share of Pinoeers come through and settle these fair lands. Unlike other parts of our beloved country that were settled hundreds of years earlier, it took those explorers some time to explore the extent of the Mississippi […]
It’s been a very strange winter so far in the upper Midwest. Tomorrow is February, and instead of fighting snow and freezing cold temperatures, we are in the midst of the perfect Indian Summer. It felt like spring today in the woods, with the sun shining bright and birds chirping. The only thing that gave […]
I couldn’t believe my very own eyes; it really couldn’t be true, could it? For once, I was working on some research totally unrelated to the Iowa DNR, digging into the lesser-known but wonderful Rolling Prairie Bike Trail of North Central Iowa. There are 21 miles of paved bike trail in Butler County and 7 […]
It’s clear that Iowans, as proud Midwesterners, are starting to wake up to the fact that there is something strange in the water, both physically and metaphorically. I was recently having a conversation with a friend via text, someone who I would call an average Iowan, someone who camps at Ledges State Park and rides […]