SKUNK RIVER WATER TRAIL
Historical notes - Drifting back in time . . .

* CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION! (Please send your comments, suggestions, and helpful criticisms to rick(~at~)skunkriverpaddlers.org)
To view additional information and references imbedded within this page, select "view" and "source" in your browser window.

Story City

By the 1860’s settlement activity quickened. Norwegians who had first come to Illinois from their native country in the 1850’s found land in Story County both inexpensive to buy ($1.25 an acre) and profitable to farm. American farmers & merchants followed the Scandinavians.

The Des Moines & Minnesota railroad’s arrival in 1879 assured a continuous existence for this small town. As in so many towns in Iowa, the railroad proved a vital factor in touching off a local commercial boom, farmers in the area enjoyed the conveniences of delivering their produce to this new depot in preference to the tedious, mud-ridden haul to Ames & Gilbert. The Northwestern, a railroad line running east to west, arrived at the Fairview settlement in 1881. In that same year the town incorporated, changed its name to Story City, and began expanding away from the Skunk River towards the depot. (www.storycity.net)

The first water power saw mill was built by Mr. Brown northeasterly of the artesian well. It sawed but little for want of water power. The early history of Howard and Lafayette, to be found elsewhere, will give further items of early times, (see R. W. Ballard's letter.)   (Pages 66 and 189 W.G. Allen, 1887)

Sowers Pioneer Cemetery sits on a high bank, river-left, approximately 0.7 miles below the dam in South Park.

Long Dick Creek

Long Dick Creek was the site of the first school of the Sheffield(?) settlement (edit - view source).

Long Dick Creek received its name from the incident of a man, by the nick-name of "Long Dick," in looking over the country, up and down the creek, got lost and had to stay on the prairie one or two nights — yes, and just think of it — among prairie wolves and Indians — the Indians one hundred miles away; why, it was terrible! Well, he finally got back to settlement as Long as ever; so the creek was named "Long Dick" (Page 183 W.G. Allen, 1887).

E18 Access

Anderson Access

Anderson Access was formerly known as the Anderson H-Tree Access for a naturally grafted pair of elms, an American and a slippery (red) elm. Dutch elm disease killed the American side, then the slippery side by the mid 1970's. (1908 photo, R. Schumer photo, 1980 photo - Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

The steel high-truss bridge at Anderson Canoe Access was moved from it's original location on the Lincoln Highway in 1949. (Ames Historical Society photos taken at Lincoln Way)

The American Legion's Forty & Eight Cabin is river-right just below the bridge. The Forty & Eight organization draws its origin from World War I when young Americans were sent to France to fight a war to end all wars. The narrow gauge railroads of France had boxcars (Voitures) which were used to transport the men and horses to and from the fighting fronts. On the side of these little boxcars was stenciled the capacity of each, holding either forty men or eight horses, and these voitures became the trademark of the organization. Membership in the Forty & Eight is by invitation only for recognition of service to the American Legion and/or its programs.   (fortyandeight.org)

The greenbelt trail that goes north from the Anderson Access follows what appears to have been a northward extension of Pleasant Valley Road (see Lafayette/Howard Township maps at Additional Links). That road crossed the Skunk in the first section and connected with what is now 140th Street. Some portions of the trail are through lands that were formerly acquired for the I35 corridor.

Bear Creek

Upstream are the Bear Creek Riparian Buffer Demonstration Sites, an EPA National Restoration Demonstration Watershed.

Soper's Mill

Soper's Mill stood on the east (south) bank in the area of today's bridge, and during low water remants of the crib dam are still visible on the stream bottom. Historical accounts vary, but the original mill was reportedly built in 1856 by Thomas Hughes, and the Hughes sawmill rebuilt as a gristmill in 1859 by T. K. Soper. It was remodeled again in 1871 and at that time began producing a flour know as "Soper's Superlative". By 1887 mill operations had apparently ceased, and in 1909 the mill dam washed away. The mill was torn down in the 1930's and walnut lumber from the structure was used to construct a barn which still stands nearby. (HISTORY OF MILLS, W.G. Allen, 1887)

The concrete abutments upstream from the bridge are the remains of an 1876 iron Rainbow Truss bridge, which before washing out in 1996 was on the National Register of Historic Places. The existing bridge was built in 1939.

Soper's Mill on the Skunk River - "1870's photo", "1880's" photo, Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive. The house in the 1870's photo is reportedly that of P. J. Swearinger, one of the later operators of the mill, and it may be the foundation of the Swearinger home that is still intact just up the hill.

Old Iron Bridge at Soper's Mill in 1914 (Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

The Soper's area has long been used by the public for recreation and was a regular camping spot for Scouts (photo) (Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

Canoe access at Soper's Mill is approximately 1/4 mile below the bridge at a constructed rock riffle. The riffle was initially established in the 1970's and was rebuilt in 2006 with a state Fish Habitat Grant. Just downstream and at the end of the Soper's area a steel pipe lies across the river. The pipe may have once capped a small wooden dam, and some verticle 2x6 boards are still visible near each bank. There may also have been a ford crossing here in pioneer days (see Milford Township/Story County maps at Additional Links).

Keigley Branch

Keigley Branch follows the interior margin of the Altamont glacial advance (see Geology), and downstream from Keigley's Branch on river-right there are a series of spoil piles and scattered glacial boulders from a 1930's rock quarry.

Franklin Township

Franklin Township includes the area between 160th Street and East 13th Street, and from the Boone County line to Dayton Avenue. It includes Hannum's Mill and the early town of Bloomington (see maps at Additional Links).

Franklin Township is a township of much good land and is being settled and improved rapidly. At one time it had, and may have yet, more native timber in it than any other township in the county. It contains several streams of water along which timber in earlier times was quite abundant. (Page 193 Franklin Township Description, W.G. Allen, 1887)

Franklin Township is the best township for quarries. There is a good one on the west side of Skunk River on the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 13, township 84, range 24.

- Quarries are found on sections 23, 25 and 26. There is a pretty good one about eighty rods east of the west quarter corner of section 23. Near the center of the northeast quarter section 26, and elsewhere in sections 23 and 26, township 84, range 24, quarries are found. It is thought there is a very good one on the southeast quarter of section 26, owned by Pressly R. Craig.

- It is understood there is a quarry on the east half of section *32, or the west half of section 33, probably in the northwest quarter of section 33, township 84, range 24, is more definite.

- In Milford Township there is one or more quarries in sections 6 and 7. At or near the north quarter corner of section 7 (and at Soper's Mill) there is rock, and up the river sixty or one hundred rods north or northeasterly from the mill is the Sowers quarry; or it may be about 100 rods northwesterly from the Pleasant Grove church.

- We find also a fair quality of rock in sections 28 and 32 on Bear Creek in Howard Township.

- On the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 13, township 85, range 22, there were many years ago many large and beautiful white lime rocks which made a singular and delightful appearance. Twenty-five years ago they were visible for miles; but time and other mishaps may have robbed this lovely spot of much of its beauty. This beautiful group was miles from timber. (Page 389, Stone Quarries, W.G. Allen, 1887)

Bible Creek is the little stream that enters just above the Hannum Mill/US Filter Dam. Bible Creek got its name from the circumstance of a book pedlar having left his buggy, loaded with books and Bibles, in a snow drift which proved, when the snow melted, to be in this stream.   (Page 193 W.G. Allen, 1887)

Ames Lake

Hannum's Mill

Large timbers, "cribbing" from the original rock crib dam, still project downstream from beneath a concrete cap. A limestone bridge abutment, probably part of the old Marietta Road (Marietta being the former County Seat of Marshall County), still stands river-left near an old USGS gauge house. The bridge was torn down by W. P. Coon in the early 1900's after Marietta Road relocated downstream to the new "red bridge". The lumber from the bridge was used by Coon to construct a barn on his property south of the river. Barely visible near the north bank, the date "1948" is sctratched into the concrete surface of the dam, and that is thought to be when the original USGS gauge was installed. It has since been replaced with a new guage at Riverside Road.

Hannum's Mill (Miller's in earlier times,) situated on Skunk River, on the west half of the southwest quarter of section 23, township 84, range 24, was a water and steam power mill, and did a great deal of work as a flouring mill and corn grinding. The main mill was moved in the year 1882 to Odebolt, Iowa. What was left of it is not of much value compared with what it had been. It also did considerable sawing as there was fair timber near by.   (Page 385, HISTORY OF MILLS, W.G. Allen, 1887)

Lithograph of Hannum's Mill (Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

Abutment of the old red bridge following the 1918 flood   (Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

Crib Dam construction, from FRONTIER MILLS BY GEORGE C. DUFFIELD in Annals of Iowa Volume 6, July 1904, No. 6: The mills on all the little streams were almost alike, the difference being in the dam, the wheel and in the fact that some were only saw mills, some grist mills and some saw and grist mills combined. In describing the Clayton mill, I will have described all the rest, except where I note differences. The Claytons felled trees on both sides of the creek, cut them into the longest logs possible, hewed them on two sides, and laid them end to end, spliced and pinned, clear across the creek on bed rock. Three or four such lines laid down; two or three feet apart, notched every four or six feet and cross ties laid in and pinned, made the foundation frame. The pens thus formed were filled with clay from the hillside and stone from the creek-bed. This was the start, and with two more lines of timbers, notched and laid down on the ends of the cross ties, and over the outside timbers of the foundation, then other cross ties, and more long timbers, formed a row of cribs, and gave the dam its name of "crib dam." It was raised some two feet higher at the down-stream side than the up-stream. The cribs filled with stone and clay, and roofed with plank, or logs finished the main part. To prevent the back wash from undermining it, there was a row of secondary cribs built along below and pinned to the main dam. This, filled and roofed like the main dam, the roof slanting from a couple of feet under its comb to a few inches of the bed of the creek, was called the apron. The whole structure was 14 or 16 feet through, 8 or 10 feet high and some 60 or 65 feet long. 

Town of Bloomington

Ada Hayden Park

Across Highway 69 from the Sleepy Hollow Access is Ada Hayden Heritage Park, a former sand & gravel quarry purchased by the City of Ames in 2002. The property was acquired in part to preserve its use as a backup source of water in times of drought.

Ames' water is supplied by 19 wells in 4 wellfields, each drawing from shallow deposits of sand & gravel hydraulically connected to our surface waters. Water levels in these wells are affected by streamflow in the Skunk and Squaw. In the midst of a severe drought in 1977 and under the advice of an ISU hydrologist, a temporary dam was constructed at North River Valley Park to impound the flow of the Skunk River, allowing more water to infiltrate into the aquifir. Additional water was pumped to the river from the Halletts Quarry (now Ada Hayden Lake) to augment the flow. The effort was successful and water levels in downtown wells were restored within days. The temporary dam washed away later that summer but was needed again and rebuilt several times in ‘81 and ‘82. In 1983/84, a permanent concrete dam was constructed to provide ongoing well replenishment. Water was again pumped from Hallett’s in 1988, and from East Peterson Park in 2000.

The hydraulic relationships between Ada Hayden Lake, the Skunk River, and the shallow aquifirs from which Ames draws its water supply are still being studied. See Groundwater flows in and out of Ames' Ada Hayden lake and Buried Channels, Quarry Lakes, Beaver Dams, And the Water Supply of Ames, ISU Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences.

See the Ames Drought Contingency Plan for information about water conservation measures and the drought conditions which would trigger use of water from Ada Hayden Lake.

City Pumps Water Into South Skunk, Iowa State Daily, September 21, 2000

Residents To Vote on Halletts Quarry, Iowa State Daily, November 5, 2001

Carr Pool

Carr Pool, from www.ameshistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/.

Sunday afternoon small boat maneuvers in the 1890's (Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

Footbridge over Skunk River near Carr's Pool (~1989) (Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive). 

River Valley Park

The dam at North River Valley Park was constructed in 1983 after temporary sand dams had been used successfully to recharge a shallow aquifir. from which Ames draws it's water supply.

Camp Machacammac or Craig Cabin (Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

Archaelogical explorations and investigations of the Skunk River valley performed as part of the Ames Lake proposal revealed what may have once been a "buffalo pound". Bison bones had earlier been discovered in a boggy area along the edge of the floodplain northeast of River Valley Park, and it was suggested that bison were driven or guided into the area for slaughter. The use of a natural hollow to corral and capture (impound) a herd of bison was one of several hunting techniques employed by Native Americans.

Channelization

Beginning in 1893 the South Skunk was straightened from Ames well into Mahaska County (photo, Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

Streams adjust themselves to maintain an equilibrium between sediment transport and velocity. When the sediment load is too great for the flow, deposition occurs, increasing the gradient below the deposits until the velocity is again sufficient to carry them away. When there is too little sediment, bed erosion decreases the gradient until the load is again in equilibrium with the flow. Any change in velocity, slope, discharge, size and concentration of sediment, channel width and depth, and roughness of the channel will trigger an adjustment of the other variables towards a new equilibrium.

When a stream or stream segment is straightened, as was the South Skunk in the early 1900's, the shortened length results in an increase in gradient and velocity, which in turn increases the sediment carrying capacity. The stream will first downcut into the stream bed, but will eventually begin to cut laterally into the stream banks. Meanders will begin to form, growing both laterally and downstream, as sediments are eroded from the outer bends and deposited as point bars. The channel may also begin to widen, which reduces velocity and can lead to deposition.

Increased flow due to urban stormwater runoff will also increase the sediment carrying capacity of a stream, temporarily, and accelerate the natural erosion process of the bed or banks. This is evident in the previously channelized stretches immediately below Ames, beginning at Lincoln Way.

The Hungry Canyons Alliance of the Golden Hills RC&D has been working to prevent further channel erosion of the highly erodable loess soils in western Iowa. Their website provides a good explanation of stream morpholgy and channel disturbances.

A USDA Demonstration Erosion Control Project addresses the same issues in northwest Mississippi and the Rio Blanco River Restoration Project restores a Colorado stream after a another project diverted 70 percent of the normal flow to New Mexico and Texas.

Introduction to Sediment and River Stability from the USGS Watershed Assessment of River Stability & Sediment Supply (WARSSS)

Rivers, in American Scientist and the The Virtual Luna Leopold Project

The Skunk River bridge on east Lincoln Way following the channel change in 1915 (Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

New high truss bridge on east Lincoln Way after the 1918 flood (Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive).

The 1902 maps at Additional Links show both the original channel and the new "ditch".

Squaw Creek

There's much history along Squaw Creek, including mills, quarries, and coal mining. The 1902 maps at Additional Links show that Squaw Creek once entered the Skunk a mile further south than today. At south Duff the original channel turned south, passing behind B-Bops and crossing Hwy 30 east of George White Chevrolet and the Ames animal shelter. The creek at the end of Billy Sunday Road is probably part of the old channel.

Squaw enters the county at or very near the Squaw Creek Coal Banks. The small branch that passes the "big rock" and empties into Squaw Creek just above the west quarter corner of section 7 (Section 12 in Boone County, south of 170th - rd), that branch forms a valley of coal and of most excellent quality. These banks are in Boone County but a short distance. Here quite a trading point has grown up, and Zenorville is the town. On Skunk and Squaw there are some stone quarries of fair quality. (Page 193 Franklin Township Description, W.G. Allen, 1887)

Worrall's Grove originally covered parts of sections 16, 17 and 18, in Washington Township. This Grove was named after an old and good citizen, named Shadrick Worrall, who was elected, April 4, 1853, as the first Coronor for Story County. This Grove in common with the others shared a loss of timber. Worrall Creek passed through it and entered the flats of Squaw Fork. (Page 388, Groves, W.G. Allen, 1887)

Luther's Grove originally comprised parts of sections 4, 5 and 6, in Washington Township. Luther Creek (now known as Clear Creek - rd) passes through this grove. It once had some good timber in sections 4 and 5. This Grove and the Creek were named for a Mr. Luther, who in very early times lived in the grove, or owned a part of it. (Page 388, Groves, W.G. Allen, 1887)

The Hiestand Mill, a "Tread Mill" with an effort to use water power, was on Squaw Creek, and on the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 33, township 84, range 24 (probably ~ 1/2 mile below Onion Creek and possibly near the present-day Veenker dam - rd). It was built probably about the year 1855. It did only a small business—a "carding mill" and a saw mill. The dam washed out and the water power was a failure. (Page 386, History of Mills, W.G. Allen, 1887)

Thurman's Saw Mill, one-half a mile south of New Philadelphia, was built July, 1856, by D. and H. McCarthy, and moved away, in 1864, and used as Burger's Mill, described elsewhere. The engine was brought from Fairview, in 1855 or 1856. It was placed on Luther Creek (Clear Creek), and did a great deal of sawing while Thurman Bros. run it. It was steam power. D. & H. McCarthy, and Ross and Latham, run it a while before Thurman Bros. took it. (Page 387, History of Mills, W.G. Allen, 1887)

T. McNaughton's saw mill was about eighty rods north of the southeast corner of section 30, township 84, range 24, but did but little business. It was located on Onion Creek, and was run by water power. The impression is that it was taken to Ames by McNaughton and others about the year 1873, and changed into a flouring mill at Ames. (Page 387, History of Mills, W.G. Allen, 1887)

Burger's steam saw mill was on or near the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 32, township 84, range 24. It was built about 1864, but did not remain very long; but it done some sawing. The engine and machinery of this mill is said to be the same the Thurman Bros. had used. And it was the same used by Thos. McNaughton, after Burger had used it, on Onion Creek. (Page 387, History of Mills, W.G. Allen, 1887)

A good flouring mill was built at Ontario about the year 1870, by I. B. Nelson & Seymore, and was run by steam power. It did excellent work; but Mr. I. B. Nelson, who owned it when it was moved, took it down in June, 1874, and took it to West Side, Iowa, where he put it up again; and at last account it was doing finely. (Page 385, History of Mills, W.G. Allen, 1887)

Corey's Mill, on Squaw Creek, was water power, and was on the northeast quarter of section 14, township 83, range 24 (south of SE 16th Street, on the original channel - rd). It was an early settler and did but little work. (Page 387, History of Mills, W.G. Allen, 1887)

State Forest Nursery

The State Forest Nursery, which lies river right below Hwy 30 and the Hunziker Youth Sports Complex, was a Civilian Conservation Corps Project. From The Legacy of Hope from an Era of Despair: The CCC and Iowa State Parks - The Civilian Conservation Corps was the federal government's first program for America's jobless youth. In the early 1930s, during the depths of the Great Depression, one quarter of the work force was unemployed. About 2.5 million men and women were aimlessly drifting the country. Today, we would call them the "homeless." - Because Iowa had adopted a long-range conservation plan in early 1933, it was among the first states to be approved for CCC camps. - Nationwide, CCC boys were responsible for most of the reforestation accomplished prior to World War II. [31] Reforestation also was high on the agenda of state forester G.B. MacDonald, who served as the state CCC director. MacDonald took full advantage of federal and state appropriations to acquire about 13,000 acres of land for state forests in Iowa. Two CCC camps were assigned to full time forestry work: surveying newly acquired lands, building erosion control structures, grading and surfacing roads, and planting tress. MacDonald also established the state tree nursery at Ames, and a third CCC camp provided the labor to operate it. CCC camps throughout the state planted trees in state parks and collected seeds for propagating more.

Southwest of town near Ken Maril Road the banks have been re-shaped and armored in an attempt to halt further erosion. The project is described in Friend of ISU Funds Skunk River Project. (photos)

265th to Askew Bridge/Cambridge

Cambridge

Jairus Chandler built the water-power saw-mill on the west side of Skunk River and near where the bridge is, but north of it a short distance, in 1853. The steam flouring mill, which was a good one, was built by J. Chandler and Dr. W. H. Grafton about 1855. It stands a short distance southwest of the bridge at Cambridge. (Page 266 W.G. Allen, 1887)

Sources, maps, and additional links:

• Story County IAGenWeb
• A History of Story County, Iowa by William G. Allen, 1887
• History of Story County, A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement by W. O. Payne, 1911
• Iowa History Project
• Ames Tribune Archive Search
• 1862 Map of Iowa by Johnson & Browning
• 1875 Andreas Atlas of Story County (9 meg)
  • Franklin and Milford Townships (700kb)
  • Lafayette and Howard Townships
  • Indian Creek and Collins Townships
• 1895 County Maps at USGenNet.org
• Ames Historical Society
  • 1898 Topographical Map of Franklin Township
  • 1899 Superficial Deposits Map of Story County
  • 1902 Story County Plat Book - Milford Township, Franklin Township, Washington Township, Grant Township
• Historic Vegetation of Story County and Iowa   (GLO Research, ISU)
• NPS National Register of Historic Places
• Office of the State Archaeologist
• The Iowa Stone Industry, 1957 Excerpts From The Palimpsest: Quarrying in Iowa
• STREAMS OF JASPER COUNTY The rivers, creeks and springs of any given section of the country are ever highly prized by the stranger, as well as by the actual settler, who knows he is in a goodly land, whenever he sees streams and at least a moderate quantity of timber. One stream in particular in Jasper County has made a history for itself that is known from ocean to ocean, and that is the Skunk, the south fork of which enters Poweshiek Township on section 9, and by action of the county authorities was made the southern boundary of Poweshiek, Sherman, Palo Alto and Elk Creek Townships, and the northern boundary of Washington, Mound Prairie and Fairview. Its Indian name was "Chicaqua," meaning an offensive odor, and it is said to be the same in Indian dialect as "Chicago," both rivers deriving their name from the wild onion, which the moist character of the soil along both streams allowed to grow in great abundance. Ever since the early settlement this stream and its bottomlands have been a terror to travelers. The soil in the bottom is very deep and porous, and when the frost is leaving in the spring or after heavy rains, the bottom becomes one long mud hole into which the early day immigrant passed through with fear and trembling and thought himself in luck if indeed he escaped without being pulled out at least three or more times. This was known and dreaded by people from Maine to California. At an early day the Skunk River was wont to raise out of its banks after a hard rainstorm with great rapidity, and many a traveler has passed over with water belly deep to the stagecoach teams. But with the development of the country this has largely passed away. The lands are properly drained, bridges erected far above the high water mark and light approaches made, so that no one dreads the crossing of what was in the fifties and sixties a dangerous proposition, So famous was this bottom away back about Civil War days, that Harper's Weekly contained an illustration of crossing the "Skunk Bottoms," in which a stage coach loaded with passengers were sitting swamped in the mud, waiting for a pioneer farmer, who is seen approaching in the distance with a yoke of oxen to help the weary horses in pulling the coach to firm ground. It is said, however, that the profanity occasioned could not be illustrated by Harper's artist.
• Kish-Ke-Kosh State Preserve This preserve contains a remnant prairie on sand that mantles an unusual upland projection into the South Skunk River valley. The sand was blown out of the river valley about 4,000 years ago. The 16-acres native sand prairie was named the Kish-Ke-Kosh Prairie in honor of a village chief of the Fox tribe who frequented the area in the mid 1880s. Big and little bluestem, Indian grass, and prairie dropseed dominate the prairie, with various forbs including a sand puuccoon, marbleseed, prairie larkspur, and vast blooms of rough blazing star, with a few stalks of white-flowered rough blazing star. Directions: Take Reasnor Road 10 miles (E 12th St. S.); into Reasnor. At far south edge of town, take gravel road east (left) Follow it to sign marking prairie on right (south) side of road.