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killed In early days.* * * * * *Backbone Park, Iowa's Best, Set for Another Rush SeasonBv ROBERT M. BLISSCourier Staff WriterLamont, la.—Everybody here from Mrs. Sophia Adams down is ; welcoming the opening of the season at Iowas finest park, Backbone, five miles northeast of town.Mrs, Adams, a bright and cheerful great-grandmother at 90, still delights in riding through the miles of idyllic drives of the 1,412 acre park, which now is brilliantly mantled with wild flowers.She is steeped in the lore of the area before it became a park. Such as the time more than 50 years ago when her daughter, Mrs. Charles Dopp of Lamont, now 65, and a girl friend became lost in the park and spent the night at the old hotel on the Backbone, run by a Mrs. Codgeior some such spelling.The hotel is gone now without « trace, but the legend remains ofa lady who drove her carriage off the 150-foot cliff overlooking the Maquoketa river, and was killed.Local lore also says that an old •tage road went straight along the Backbone, but if this is the case there must have been a lot of eroding since because it is rougn, rocky, steep and narrow now.Lamont it proud of its part to sponsoring the state park, led by Hon. E. C. Hoyt, a formerrraider! Gov. William L Hard-lng came up for the dedication on May 28, 1920, and ate breakfast at the Lamont Communityclub before going out to makethe dedicatory speech.»There, in a natural amphitheater, backed by stately bluffs, he accepted the park for the state before an audience of hundreds.And what a park it is! Virtually all wooded, sparkling springs,crystal trout streams, the limpid waters of the Maquoketa, one ofthe finest bathing beaches in Jews* sheer precipices ranging up to 200 feet with caves, ledges, breathtaking chasms, and the famous balanced rock.The area formerly was owned by several farmers, who used it principally as a source of lumber and firewood.It contains some of the finest native pine in Iowa, as well as cedar, various types of oak, hard and soft maple, hickory, haw-thome and many other types of trees. The stately, weather beaten pines on the Backbone, themighty ridge between the river and creek from which the park derives Its name, are much likethe ponderosa Pines of centralOregon.The native trees have been augmented by plantings of spruce and pine under the sponsorship of the Daughters of the American Kevolu-tion in 1928 and by the Civilian Conservation Corps m the 1930’s. The CCC boys also built roads,cabins, trails, marker?, rock walls, and the picturesque principal buildings of stones. A couple of the CCC barracks still are standing. These park improvements here, as elsewhere, stand as an enduring monument to these youths,!Many other improvements have| been wrought since the days of j Governor Harding. Not the least-! of these was in 1928, when the recreational dam was built on the Maquoketa at the site formerly occupied by a mill dam.Above this dam is The Beach,’ which L. J. Schmidt, the park superintendent, declares is the finest bathing water in Iowa. The beach’s attractions are a sandy, gently sloping beach and cold spring-fed water, a safety rope at four and one-half feet, a diving tower, platform, life guards, and modem bathing house, Schmidt and his assistants, Paul Scuchmann, Jack Galiier, Robert Brewer, Melvin Hoffman and Bill Nightingale arc busy now1 painting towers and benches and “toning up” the park for the spring season.A short distance from The Beach are the 18 neat cabins which the CCC constructed, These arc pretty well all booked now for May, July and August but there are still some vacancies during June, Saturday night was virtually a sellout for the opening of troutMrs. Sophia Adams. 90, of Lamont, Ia„ is proud of Backbone state park as are the other 800 inhabitants of this town from whence the idea for the park is said to have sprung. Mrs. Adams knows much of the park lore, and still enjoys a ride on its beautiful drives. Mrs, Adams also took a plane ride on her 89th birthday.season. Sixteen of the cabins hadbeen rented, including three togame wardens, The entire park staff, including Earl Hubbard, superintendent of the trout hatchery and his assistants were bracing themselves for the opening of the trout season Sunday,“It s the damndest thing you ever saw/ opined one of the staff. “The fishermen are so thick they can hardly throw a line in without getting it tangled with someone else's. They use everything for bait that was ever heard of— worms, doughballs, salmon eggs, meat, plugs, flies.”However, some changes have been made. The pools at Rich-
Newspaper Details
Mount Pleasant Mt Pleasant News
Mount Pleasant, Iowa, US
Sun, May 01, 1949
Page 42
Full Page
Clipped by
Jill B.
IA, USA 08 Nov 2019
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