Land Between Two Rivers; 103-Is; Nishnabotna River. Part 1

The following program is made possible through a grant from the Kennedy Lindstrom foundation incorporated a charitable trust Mason City Iowa. Half Light half shadow the Earth spins away twirling and wobbling in a flirtatious dance around the sun. Fickle elemental atoms dance on and within the planet itself always changing partners. This moment the dance forms a leaf. The next a spider. Then perhaps a bird or a

man. Over rough or water or who can say. The dance continues with neither end nor beginning. For convenience. People have divided this dance into parts and assigned the parts names days months seasons years leaves spiders birds men rocks and water. But this is not the way of the universe for all are woven into one infinite tapestry of ever repeating and ever changing the cycles of time and life. This is no mere idle philosophy nor is it a new thought. Humanity has observed and wrestled with this concept since first becoming aware of itself. It is perhaps ironic that science now confirms what the ancient

philosophers understood for thousands of years. Nature is a never ending collection of cycles within cycles within cycles. Such can be seen everywhere in the land between two rivers. Even in the march of seasons through a little known River Valley in southwest Iowa called the West mission about. The West begins in west central Carroll County and flows for about one hundred sixty two miles through southwest Iowa until it joins the Big Muddy 10 miles south of the Iowa Missouri border. Its Valley covers one thousand five hundred eighty two square miles. Those are the facts easily forgotten as this valley shakes off its winter spell.

Spring the name alone is perhaps all the description necessary. No creature in nature does a more thorough job of announcing seasonal changes in the nation about the valley than the millions of birds that migrate along the nearby Missouri River flyway. First among these travelers snow geese scratch at the frozen ground searching for food to carry them through the chilly miles ahead. Soon after the snow geese the spring skies vibrate with the white soaring wings of the pelican. While awkward and somewhat funny looking on land their flight has the grace and flow of a cool jazz aerial ballet. Yes even the seemingly effortless glide of the pelicans is too much work for the

migrating horned greed. It prefers to be admired for its stylish headdress. And the aptly named buffalo head duck has something else entirely on his mind with sensuous bobbing. He approaches his intended mate in a calculated dance underscoring the rites of spring. A. The Great Horned Owl views all this with some disdain. She has spent the harsh winter here in Iowa looking for a nest.

Hatched from eggs laid in mid-February three hour let's greet the spring. Clicking hungrily. In a matter of weeks they have grown considerably. Their appetites are immense. To survive predators such as these young owls must and do mature quickly. Only 15 percent of predatory birds become adults. In Iowa the prairie was the grandest harbinger of spring. Breakers have today dwindled to a rare and precious few.

If not the quantity of the announcement is still. Below the ground matted surface. In early spring. But these hawks circling above no different. Their sharp eyes have spotted a field mouse or a rabbit. Spoilers go to the victor. Bring speaks of. Knowledge speaks of a time when I was young. These small light colored circular features are fossil corals that are approximately 250 to 300 million years old and these fossil corals are imbedded in an interval of limestone. The limestone is the litho fied remains of sediments that were deposited in ancient sea that covered Iowa during an interval of geologic time that we refer to as the Pennsylvanian age. And these corals are the

remains of some of the forms of life that inhabited those ancient seas that once covered this area. The limestone is composed of calcium carbonate or the secretions of marine animals that lived in those sea as well as the chemicals that were precipitated from the seawater. This black shirt that we see here is is rather unusual in its color. You don't usually see much black shuriken. It does come in many different colors but the black with the distinctive white pods of the four I am in there for fossils make it a very interesting and a very distinctive type of shirt. And of course Churi is another name for Flint which is the type of material that Indians Native Americans used in making their artifacts and the fact that it is kind of localized to this part of the world helps the archaeologists establish trade patterns that the Indians used in

trading with with other groups in the Midwest. Such quarries containing evidence of ancient tropical life show that the Iowa land was once near the equator. Proof that the land itself experiences its own cycles of change where even the continents appear to move about the surface of the earth as if they were alive. The interesting sequence of sedimentary rocks that we see exposed in this quarry face show an interesting alteration of limestone with shales and limestone and shale So if you look at the top you can see light colored light gray units of limestone and blacker units of shale than limestone and black shales and more limestone. These show a variety of interesting characteristics one they show the layered or vetted appearance that is very characteristic of sedimentary rocks in Iowa. And the limestone alternating with the shales tells us that the environment said at

that time were probably coastal shallow coastal tropical with lots of vegetation occurring where and when the limestone was deposited you had more clear deeper ocean waters occurring in the shales were deposited perfectly the black shales that indicates a more tidal area a little more terrestrial vegetation. The swampy conditions the accumulation of large amounts of organic material which are what give the shales their black color. The earth is a layer cake billions of years old deep layers of volcanic bedrock topped by sedimentary limestone and shale. All hidden by layers of clay and topsoil Iowa's modern surface was imported and deposited and contoured by the great ice age. Spanning the time between 15000 and two million years ago.

Glacial ice departed southern Iowa once and for over a half million years ago. But the land continued to change. Six hundred thousand years ago this landscape that you see here in Montgomery County looks very different than it does today. If you look out to the horizon and pick out the high points along the. Land. At which all of this land surface that you see out in front of you now was at one time. That's the way it looked when the glaciers left this area about 600000 years ago. Since that time the major operating on the landscape has been running water or stream erosion and the result has been carved into a very deeply rolling topography. And most of the land surface that you see is in major lands along the land surface that is almost

entirely in slope and this has the characteristic appearance of the Southern I would reply an area. Natural cycles cross and into we. I was glacial inheritance contains unique surprises. The nation of rot in a river valley enters the Missouri River Valley in southwestern Iowa and one of the best places to see the terrain in the vicinity of that juncture is that well Bonzi State Park and it's here that we can observe one of Iowa's most interesting landform regions an area called the Western Lost Hills. During a period of geologic time that probably extended from 30000 years ago to approximately fourteen thousand years ago was a time when there was major melt water events taking place in Iowa. And if you can imagine the summer time when melting was at its maximum

this valley which is probably a good ten miles wide here eight to 10 miles wide probably was just covered from where we're standing now clear to the Nebraska side which was just torrents of meltwater carrying lots of glacial debris that had formerly been been carried within the ice. You'd have all that debris without any vegetative cover just exposed to very strong primarily western early winds that were blowing across this area. And if you can just imagine great quads and long plumes of dust silt wind blown material being swept off. That flood plane just carried out in great clouds of swirling dust being carried out across the margins of the valley and deposited on to the east. The last as this wind blown silt is called is not a particularly unique material it's very widespread across much of the

Midwest. But here along the western Iowa border particularly between Sioux City and the Missouri state line we have one usually thick accumulations of loss or wind long silt probably roil over 50 or 60 feet in most places and can be easily up to 100 or a hundred fifty feet thick. And we do have a few Well records on file at the Geological Survey where there are indications that it might be is as much as 200 feet thick. But that that would be the exception as the land has evolved. So his life one affecting the other. We're standing here on the west valley wall overlooking the valley of the National Guard in a river with the town of Oakland here in Pottawattamie County in the background and in the first week of August of 1970 we had a remarkable find here in that a road grading crew that was excavating here along county G

42 uncovered the remains of a glacial age Mammoth a large elephant like vertebrate that roamed this area approximately 20000 years ago mastodons were very common animals on the Iowa landscape. Appearance they're very similar in that they both look like elephants. If you look at them closely you'll find that there are a number of very fundamental differences. If one of these animals would let you look into their mouth I think you would find a great difference in the dentition or the teeth of the organism. The mammal has a grinding kind of mower. That is used for grinding in the same sense as you use a mill for grinding grain. Mastodons. Have teeth in their teeth and when they come together they they fit together more like like fish. And as such they can't move back and forth. Or like fish to

grind. And this kind of tooth is primarily used for cracking breaking open the skeletal structure figures out of trees and not the trees but the leaves the twigs the tender shoots and in this kind of thing. In Iowa at that time there were a number of animals such as the giant They were living during the Ice Ages they became extinct about 10000 or between nine and ten thousand years ago. An animal unlike any we see today. These became extinct in North America. Another group of animals that we see that were living in Iowa at that time or those animals that survived this period of extinction but are now living elsewhere either in South America Eurasia or in the Canadian forest or the tundra today. Musk oxen and reindeer were very common animals in the Iowa landscape. This is relocation. The last group of animals that we want to talk about. They were on the landscape at that time. Are those animals that were

in Iowa at the time. The European farmers entered the state. They have since been dislocated if you will from the state but not for climatic reasons. Agriculture was a cause the Pronghorn was a fairly common animal in Iowa 200 years ago. We found the remains as far east as the Mississippi River. Black bears were here at that time. A few of these still wandered back into the state. There were two beavers in the Ice Age landscape of Iowa one of which was the Canadian Beaver the animal that we see living in the state today. They other is the now extinct Beaver called a giant beaver strangely enough. And the reason for this is that the animal was something on the order of six and a half feet in length. With his rear paws on the ground. The giant they were. That is what is feed on your shoulder and like your face. The skull is something on the order of four to five times the size of that of the modern modern Beaver. In so far as

we can tell the habits of the two animals were not that similar. The teeth of the giant beaver the molar teeth the grinding teeth the giant beaver are somewhat broader and deeper indicating a more grazing kind of habitat than you find with a modern Beaver. We predict then that it was feeding more on the grassy vegetation around the swamps in the pond whereas the Canadian beaver that we see living today is feeding on the inner bark of trees as it does at the present time. One being a dam bill or the other one not. So this Pleistocene phone that we see is composed of basically three elements. Those animals which became extinct. Those animals that now survive in other geographic locations where the environmental environment is suitable for him and those animals that have remained here. A.

It is now summer in the mission about in the valley a time of furious growth and activity a time of fieldwork. Agriculture and archaeological. Most of what we know about ancient Iowans is pieced together with Detective like precision from artifacts like these. About 10000 years ago the first known islands called paleo Indians used such weapons to hunt mammoth bison and other big game. The artifact record in this state reveals a gradual progression toward a more settled and agrarian lifestyle. Between nine hundred and fourteen hundred a group known as the Glenwood culture named after a nearby town inhabited the nation of and nearby Missouri Valley. Aside from the necessities of life projectile points and Glenwood artifacts include some personal items that rival modern jewelry. These remnants of the past are tediously freed from the soil of sites like this one overlooking the

Missouri flood plain. At this particular bar area they found a great deal of material suggesting a glowing with Earthwatch was present. When we came out here for the excavation. We had limited amount of time we only had one month to excavate. After we profiled the trenches had a good idea of where the site was located or the central part of the site. We opened up excavation units. And started coming down to the House bill and the House floor. Once we got below the House floor. We encountered cash pits or storage pits. And. This is one of the cache pits that we excavated. This is bell shaped it was full of. Material. The storage pits. Have. A history in themselves. They start out. As a place to store corn beans squash. Nuts. Or other

items. They're dug right inside the house. After a while the food may start to spoil. Rodents may get in. They're just not suitable for storage any longer so they dig storage pits start filling up the old ones with garbage. And so what we are excavating is the garbage that was thrown into these abandoned storage pits. Also during the excavation we found a central hearth. We found two of the four central support posts. We found one of the outer support posts. We've not been able to locate the rest of them. And there's always that hope or you know that expectation that maybe that next fall will uncover something that will provide even further insight into this life. You know a thousand years ago trying to imagine. What it was like when these people were living here. The importance of the water screening the flotation in the hills as we were covering. Information from very small.

Animals very small plant remains that. Give us maybe even a better clue of what the climate was like and how climate affected. These particular species. There's a certain thrill when you uncover say a piece of pottery. When you find someone's thumbprint and know that you're holding the same piece that someone else held. Thousands years ago. And you can put your thumb in the same thumbprint It's just knowing. That it makes it closer. A closer contact to that person living that way. Reach out across the centuries to no seasons of man long past time flows in this valley like the nation about a river flows and muddy by man's attempts to control it

attempts it resists the river still a natural beauty. Thousands of years this little stream has wandered over most of its wide valley. Modern agriculture. To the family.

But mission has its answer to the problem. And return to this valley. You're. This is the maker of I was rich dirt. Once the river valleys had their

green belts everywhere else. I just think ocean of undulating tall grass Prarie three generations of the warin family have preserved this parcel of virgin prairie vanishing reminder of Iowa's natural heritage. Well my grandfather came here to Mills County and 1854 and settled this land here and my father was born here on this farm and I was born here on this farm and we've been there ever since 1854 and there's never been a change of ownership. So and this this is stood up under floods and lots of exigencies of human existence except that we never thought it's never out of line and. We always burned it. Every spring my father said Well that was it. They practiced so that the end and juice was burnt off every spring. You have to get rid of the weeds

and any foreign plants that might have or crept into it. And we've always been very careful to protect just prairie and we're doing the same thing now and are going to do it long as I live and I feel that my two daughters are pretty well educated on the importance of preserving it. And keeping it in and its original condition. You know the ownership of land is in my opinion trust and anyone who wants that. Certainly should preserve it not only for their own use but for the sake of their posterity and for their future things. During our next program more on the less will discover how early settlers made use of the incredible variety of plants on the I will go hunting for rattlesnake. And find out how birds in the Mishnah

bottom of Valley play a part in the natural eco system. Will traipse through a 10000 year old mars and learn about good wildlife management. Next time. The preceding program was made possible through a grant from the Kennedy

Lindstrom foundation incorporated a charitable trust Mason City Iowa.