I’m sharing some vacation photos, taken at the Athabasca Glacier in Alberta, Canada, because it’s a nice window into Iowa’s icy past and its warming future. Earth science concepts like glacial moraines and watersheds and climate change that can be subtle or hidden in Iowa are plain to see in the mountains!
1. Glacial Ice
This is the Athabasca Glacier. It’s a slow moving river of ice 4 miles long and 300-980 feet thick, sliding off the larger Columbia Icefield in the Canadian Rockies. It looks big from a distance, and it feels even bigger when you’re walking across it on crampons and aren’t used to the altitude! The depth of the ice became apparent when we looked into a crevasse.
All of Iowa looked like this at some point during the last 2 million years, except the ice was even thicker. The Des Moines Lobe of the Wisconsinian ice sheet melted from northern and central Iowa just 12,000 years ago, leaving behind flat, marshy land. Other parts of Iowa have been ice-free for longer and had more time for wind and water to shape the hills and valleys.
2. Glacial Till
A sheet of ice hundreds of feet deep is heavy, and pushes against the earth with tremendous force as it slides slowly downhill. This photo shows both the scratches on the bedrock made by the glacier and the glacial till that it leaves behind–an unsorted mix of sand, silt, gravel, and boulders. You don’t have to travel to the Canadian Rockies to see Canadian rocks; during the ice age, the glaciers carried some all the way to Iowa!
Like a bulldozer, glaciers smooth out the ground underneath and leave a big pile of material at the edge when they stop. That’s why there’s a line of hills near Des Moines and a lot of flat land north of there. You can see a flat ground moraine in the foreground of this picture and a steep lateral moraine in the background.
3. Soil Formation
Despite the harsh conditions at the edge of the glacier, a few tiny flowers were blooming! This plant is a Saxifrage, “stone-breaker” in Latin. Plant roots and associated fungi speed up the process of breaking down rock and turning it into soil.
It’s still a slow process! It took thousands of years for prairie roots, microbes, and burrowing animals to turn lifeless glacial till into Iowa’s rich black topsoil, but only 160 years of tillage to lose half of it. Fortunately, there are ways to grow crops without degrading our soil. As Practical Farmers of Iowa puts it, “don’t farm naked!”
4. Continental Divide
The Columbia Icefield sits at the junction of two continental divides. Meltwater from the Athabasca Glacier joins the Saskatchewan River, which ultimately makes its way to Hudson Bay. However, meltwater from the Stutfield Glacier on the other side of the mountain ends up in the Arctic Ocean, and meltwater from the Columbia Glacier goes to the Pacific Ocean.
In the Canadian Rockies, the watershed boundaries are impossible to miss: lines of awe-inspiring mountain peaks on either side of a river valley. You might be driving along the Bow River until you reach it’s headwaters, and then you come to a mountain pass, your ears pop, and… ta da! You’re in a new watershed, following the Mistaya River downhill.
In Iowa, the dividing lines between land that drains to the Mississippi River and the Missouri River (or any other pair of rivers) are hard to find without a topographic map. We’ve put up watershed signs around Story County to make it more obvious.
Why does is matter what watershed you’re in? Well, knowing which land drains to which river can tell you something about the water quality in the river, and who to talk to if you want to improve it.
5. Meltwater
Our guide refilled our water bottles from a stream of glacial meltwater. I felt comfortable drinking it without boiling or filtration because nothing lives on a glacier. Elsewhere in the mountains, there’s a risk that wild animals living in or near the water might have left behind a little present containing a parasite like Giardia. Fecal contamination tends to get worse as you move downstream into areas with a lot of cows or a lot of people, and Alberta has its own set of water quality issues associated with mining and oil extraction. However, there’s a notable difference from Iowa: when natural resource agencies issue a beach advisory because of E. coli, it’s unusual enough to make the news!
The water from the glacier was refreshing but tasted a little… dusty. Like the taste in your mouth when you’re standing on a gravel road and truck passes by. Ames tap water is better!
However, the glacial dust (rock flour) reflects the light, turning mountain lakes a lovely shade of blue, turquoise, or green. In Iowa, green or blue-green colored water is usually a sign of an algae bloom, unpleasant to swim in and possibly toxic!
6. Climate Change
We made sure to include a visit to the glacier in our vacation plans because there may not be many more opportunities to see one. In a stable climate, a glacier would melt a bit in summer and grow back with winter snows. In a warming world, glaciers are melting rapidly.
Driving from the visitor center to the trailhead, we passed a series of ridges (terminal moraines) marked with dates. Since 1844, the ice has been receding and the pace of melting has accelerated in recent years. None of my pictures capture this, so I will screenshot an a pair of images from the Mountain Legacy Project and point you to Amy Snider for more art, maps, and photos about the Athabasca Glacier.
Climate change has been less noticeable in Iowa than in other parts of North America because of the moderating influence of corn sweat (evapotranspiration), but that won’t last. Rising temperatures, more intense spring rains, and greater weather variability are projected to lower yields and undermine what little progress we’ve made in addressing water quality. Alberta’s economy is dependent on fossil fuels, but Iowa has a lot of gain from a transition to green energy, and a lot to lose if we don’t make the switch.
7. Fossils
At the edge of the glacier, we saw a trilobite fossil in a 510-million year old rock, a relic of a time when erosion rates were even higher than they are now because there weren’t any plants yet. The broken shells, sand, and silt that covered the seafloor has since turned to rock and been pushed up to form new mountains.
The trilobites are long gone, wiped out during another episode of global warming and ocean acidification, this one triggered by massive volcanic eruptions 252 million years ago. It was the biggest mass extinction in Earth’s history, but after fifty million years or so, the land, seas and sky were teeming with new species.
If you take a long enough view, arable soil, clean water, and biodiversity are renewable resources. On human timescales, they’re definitely not. Agriculture and civilizations developed during a time of stable climate, and they may not last much longer if we don’t take more aggressive action to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The Earth will go on without us.
Hello byway travelers! You may be wondering where we have been (unless of course, you follow the “Where Was I on the byway” series on social media).
We have been very busy in the byway department. Our former Lincoln Highway Coordinator and now Special Projects Consultant, Shellie Orngard, finished a two-year study on historical structures in the Lincoln Highway Corridor.
“Many historic properties have been lost over the years, and it is critical that this work be undertaken to avoid losing more… Surveys are a point-in-time snapshot of properties and to ascertain their preservation needs. The end product provides information gathered and includes recommendations for preservation.”
We were fortunate to have a student working with us the past several months and we kicked out some “to do” list items.Our student spent time editing a new series, “Tales on the byway.”
This is an oral/video history project we are experimenting with to record conversations with people who have lived and worked along the Lincoln Highway Corridor. The video was recorded for the Colo Historical Association and will be played at the Reed Station Museum during open hours.
The Iowa Valley Scenic Byway Audio Tour App is something we have been spending time getting up and going, and learning about future capabilities. We needed to change the name and online location of the App so that we can expand with future tours featuring recreation areas and the Lincoln Highway once funding can be secured. The new location is: https://seeyouonthebyway.stqry.app.
Be sure to use the share icon (square with an arrow) to choose “save site to home screen.” We continue to make changes and updates to the app as we gather updated information, photos, and links. A great new “Quiz” section will be added in the coming months.
“Where Was I on the byway” continues to be the Lincoln Highway Byway theme for Wednesdays on social media and we have added a series to the Iowa Valley Scenic Byway called, “Where Was I on the App”. This series encourage exploration of the App, the audio tour, and ultimately to visit the communities.
We made much-needed route updates in our source map for the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway. Recently, the Iowa Department of Transportation completed the Hwy 30 four-lane from Lisbon to Ogden. With this construction, there were a few changes with how the Lincoln Highway enters and exits the four-lane. We are patiently awaiting new signs to complete the sign updates in Lisbon, Chelsea, and the Ralston Corners area where the route was incorrectly signed several years ago. Continue to reference the Lincoln Highway Map until we can update these sign inconsistencies.
Speaking of road construction (after-all it is spring in Iowa), we have just linked a map to our Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway website that has most of the summer/fall road construction locations marked along our updated route. We have been experimenting with the My Google Maps and trying to see how we can add information with a limited number of layers, so note that the layers in this map are still a work in-progress.
Those are the highlights of what the byway team has been up to since January. We continue to be involved with the Reed-Niland Corner’s progression with developing preservation guidelines and the development of the Reed-Niland Corner non-profit. We are working with the City of Tama regarding the Lincoln Highway Bridge. An alternate vehicular route has been constructed around the bridge. We need an inspection to move forward.
June will keep us busy again with the Preserve Iowa Summit, where Shellie and Jeanie will be a part of the round-table presentations and discussion on June 7th.
We will be hosting a viewing of the Iowa PBS Road Trip Iowa Lincoln Highway episodes on June 19th at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre with special guest, Kelsey Kramer. Kelsey is the producer of the eastern Iowa episodes. This event is FREE to attend and is open to the public. Shows begin at 9:30 with a discussion with Kelsey to follow.
Also during the tour, the Iowa Lincoln Highway Association President, Mary Preston, will be at the Cedar Rapids evening Tour stop and Joyce Ausberger is hosting lunch at the Lincoln Highway Museum on June 21st. All are welcome to travel along; only those on the tour can attend meals.
And then it is off to Ogallala for the Lincoln Highway Association Conference, where we will be taking the traveling exhibit, “Promise Road, How the Lincoln Highway Changed America.”– There is still time to register!
In November, the EPA partially approved Iowa’s 2024 Impaired Waters List, adding six additional river segments where drinking water use is impaired by high nitrate levels. I think EPA was right to do this, but I have some concerns. This is the letter I submitted during the public comment period.
Dear Water Division Staff,
I agree with the EPA’s decision to add seven river segments to Iowa’s impaired waters list. I hope that this change will lead to greater transparency about how nitrate pollution of surface waters affects the cost and safety of drinking water, but am concerned there will be unintended consequences.
Iowa’s Credible Data Law has sometimes been a convenient excuse to assess fewer waters, and thereby discover fewer problems. However, that doesn’t seem to be the issue here. Each of the water bodies on this list had at least one “credible” nitrate sample exceeding the 10 mg/L drinking water standard during the three year assessment period.
Raccoon River near Des Moines: 38 of 755 samples collected by Des Moines Water Works exceeded 10 mg/L
Cedar River near Cedar Rapids: 1 of 36 samples collected by the USGS, and 7 of 151 samples collected by Cedar Rapids Water Works
As I understand it, the issue is the threshold for impairment. Since fewer than 10% of the samples (accounting for some statistical correction factor) exceeded 10 mg/L, IDNR says these sites meet the standard. EPA says they do not.
The Iowa DNR’s position is not defensible. In the draft 2024 assessment, Raccoon River near Des Moines was shown as fully supporting its designated use for drinking water because
A) Nitrate in the Raccoon River exceeded 10 mg/L nitrate less than 10% of the time during the 2020-2022 assessment period
B) Nitrate in finished drinking water at the Des Moines Waterworks never exceeded 10 mg/L.
This makes no sense. Even one sample exceeding the Maximum Contaminant Level for nitrate would constitute a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, requiring public notice. To avoid this, the Des Moines Waterworks had to run its nitrate removal facility for weeks in 2022 at a cost of $10,000 a day, as well as blending water from other sources and asking residents to reduce water use. Clearly, poor water quality is limiting that beneficial use of the river water!
However, the South Skunk River no longer supplies drinking water to the City of Oskaloosa. The City now gets its water from an alluvial aquifer, and is able to achieve low levels of nitrate in finished water (1.17 mg/L, in the latest Consumer Confidence report) without expensive treatment. I understand that the Clean Water Act does not allow designated uses to be removed if restoring them is still achievable. However, I hope that in prioritizing and writing TMDLs we can be cognizant of facts on the ground. In the unlikely event that a TMDL for the Skunk Skunk River is written and it leads to stricter effluent limits for upstream point sources, we might be imposing real costs on Ames, Story City, and Nevada without achieving real benefits for Oskaloosa.
I am also concerned that disallowing the 10% binomial rule might lead to further politicization of funding for water monitoring. Water quality in rivers is highly variable, and daily or weekly monitoring might pick up on a short-term spike in nitrate that is missed by monthly monitoring. If a single sample can trigger impairment but there are no rules on how often a site has to be monitored, cutting budgets for monitoring programs becomes a tempting way to evade regulation and controversy.
BELLE PLAINE — Little boys love Big Boy. Big boys love Big Boy. On Thursday, hundreds of people turned out to see Big Boy.
“Big Boy” is the nickname of the 25 huge trains built in 1941 for the Union Pacific Railroad. The Omaha World-Herald introduced it as a “mastiff among puny terrier locomotives.” There are seven remaining in museums. That number used to be eight, but No. 4014 was pulled out of a California museum and restored in the 2010s. Five years after its initial excursion in 2019, the last Big Boy returned to Iowa as part of an eight-week, 10-state “Heartland of America Tour.”
John Sutherland, 75, of North Liberty was seeing Big Boy for the first time. “Railroading runs in my family’s blood. My grandfather worked for the Pullman-Standard Steel Car Co. and my great-grandfather was the line superintendent for the Michigan Central Railroad.” He’s not much of a train spotter, but the opportunity to see Big Boy was too good to pass up.
The Iowa-Illinois portion of Big Boy’s 2024 trip followed trackage that was originally part of the Chicago & North Western Railroad and closely parallels U.S. Highway 30 and the Lincoln Highway. Its public stops were in Carroll, Belle Plaine and Grand Mound. Those stops doubled as service periods, since the world’s largest operating steam locomotive requires a high degree of maintenance.
George Kornstead of Iowa City was wearing a Hawkeye Model Railroad Club shirt. He grew up around the rail hub in Duluth and Superior. “Steam is incredible, it really is, to watch how back in the day when people were working on railroad, how hard it was and how intensive it was to keep steam available on the locomotive. Lot of work. The fireman really makes his money.”
The World-Herald in 1941 said at the first Big Boy’s launch, “A single tender loading of coal would heat a six-room home for three years.” This Big Boy has been converted from using coal to using oil.
Steven Ritchie, 6, wore a “Big Boy” T-shirt. His father, Roger, said Steven has seen a lot of train videos and sings “the Big Boy song.” Andrew Schamberger of Hudson wore a C&NW T-shirt. His sister, Becca Scott of West Branch, loves the old steam engines.
According to the UP’s website, No. 4014 racked up a million miles of travel in its 20 years of original service in Wyoming and Utah. It’s nearly twice as long as a standard diesel locomotive and more than half the length of a Boeing 747 jet. The Big Boys “had a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement, which meant they had four wheels on the leading set of ‘pilot’ wheels which guided the engine, eight drivers, another set of eight drivers, and four wheels following which supported the rear of the locomotive,” the website says.
The Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” glistens during a light rain shower in downtown Belle Plaine, Iowa, on Thursday, September 5, 2024. Engine No. 4014 was built in 1941, decommissioned in 1961, and restored in time for the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad in 2019. Photo by author.
Big Boy’s visit was a way to connect with railroad history. Paul Duffy, 85, is from “Tama, really,” but now lives nearer Belle Plaine. He worked for the C&NW and then with UP after the two railroads merged. He had been stationed at multiple points along the railroad in Iowa through his career. His oldest of five daughters, Laurie Duffy, remembers going to the station in Tama with her children to wave at Paul as his train went by.
As Big Boy finally pulled into Belle Plaine 55 minutes after its scheduled arrival, the only rain in a week’s worth of weather showed up with it. It did not dampen the spirits of those who waited, although busloads of elementary school students were only able to get a short glimpse of the train before leaving.
On the other track, a modern UP train with a long line of double-stacked shipping containers prepared to resume its trip west. Freight trains have been going through Belle Plaine for more than a century and a half, and Thursday was no exception.
After the wheels had been greased up and spectators got their fill of pictures, Big Boy’s engineer pulled the whistle and rang the bell. The 83-year-old engine began to chug its way toward Cedar Rapids for the night.
The Meskwaki Nation located in Tama County has celebrated the end of summer every year for over 100 years with the Meskwaki Annual Powwow. Family and friends travel from all over the country every year to participate in the Annual Powwow which features dancing, singing, handcrafts, food, games, and fun. Dance styles and content have evolved over the years but the reminiscing, reconnecting, and celebrating unity remains the focus of the event.
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook page
Before 1900, the Meskwaki Tribe would gather every fall during harvest to celebrate the harvest of the crop with a feast. The village was centrally located and the people would celebrate while making final preparations for the storing of the crop for the coming year. They called this celebration the “Green Corn Dance.”
Then in the early 1900s, the smallpox epidemic ran through the village and the federal government burned the village homes to eradicate the disease. The government then built the settlement houses that were spread out across the land in hopes of preventing future diseases. This caused a separation of the population and the arrival of individual crop lands and various harvest times instead of a central common harvest.
CW Wright, State Historical Society of Iowa
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook Page
To fill the missing sense of celebratory community, from 1902-1912, the Meskwaki Tribe gathered at the old village site and a new event was created but without the harvest. “Field Days” had replaced the “Green Corn Dance.”
“Field Days” became popular with more and more people from outside the settlement. The Meskwaki realized that they could share their culture with the outside world and possibly provide income for the settlement during this festive event and so in 1913 the Chief appointed 15 men to plan the celebration. These men changed the event name to “Powwow” and moved it to the current Powwow Grounds.
The Meskwaki Annual Powwow is now the largest event of its kind in the nation. It has only been canceled during World War II and during the Covid-19 outbreak of 2020/2021.
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook page
All are invited and encouraged to attend the Meskwaki Annual Powwow with open minds and open hearts to learn from the Meskwaki culture during this festive event. Various games, activities, and food vendors as well as traditional foods are available to all. Powwow etiquette is an important way to show your respect and to ease your comfort in an unfamiliar cultural environment. The celebration begins on Thursday August 8 and last for four days with Grand Entry beginning at 1 pm and 7 pm daily.
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook page
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook page
The Grand Entry can now be livestreamed if you can’t make it in person. New this year is the Bible’s Fatboy Powwow Highway Ride benefiting the Meskwaki Band Florida Trip; grab your cars and bikes and meet at the Meskwaki Travel Plaza 9:30 am Aug 10th and ride the gravel-to-grounds route. What a way to celebrate the end of summer!
