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In the May/June 2008 issue of The Iowan Landscape
The ankle-deep spring water was making my toes remember January on this particular August morning. I’d been enjoying a leisurely canoe float down the Upper Iowa River but was drawn to a beautiful little spring in the Bluffton Fir Stand State Preserve and set out to explore. When I jumped out of the canoe, the water was a little cool, as water should be, and it felt good on my feet. However, the closer I waded to the spring, the colder the water became, and I soon discovered that the spring water itself was downright frigid. The Upper Iowa is unique in the Midwest because of these coldwater springs and streams that feed it, supporting a wide variety of aquatic species. Most visitors, however, don’t notice what’s going on below the water surface. Their attention is fixed on the surrounding splendor. “The Upper Iowa is the premier river in Iowa,” boasts Bill Kalishek, fish biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “Because of its fantastic scenery, it’s recognized nationally as one of the best places to paddle in the country.” Most of the Upper Iowa courses through the landform region known as the Paleozoic Plateau — sometimes referred to as the Driftless Area because of its near lack of glacial drift — the geography responsible for the coldwater springs and streams that feed the Upper Iowa. This area was last glaciated about 500,000 years ago, but, for reasons still unknown, subsequent glaciers skirted this relatively small area in northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin, and northwest Illinois, leaving it with some of the most beautiful scenery the Midwest has to offer. The steep valleys and towering bluffs of this region lie in great contrast to the surrounding farm fields. As Jean C. Prior noted in her book Landforms of Iowa, “If Iowa’s landscape had to be divided into only two regions, one would be northeastern Iowa and the other would include everything else…” READ MORE IN THIS ISSUE OF THE IOWAN subscribe now
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