Stonework from original bridge on Old Military road that crossed Kitty Creek near Langworthy.

Located on Elenore Jacobs property. 

I told someone again this week, my mind is filled with the stories I came across as I prepared for my walk retracing Lyman Dillon and Old Military road here in Eastern Iowa.  It will be 3 years this month that I took a week off and retraced that route…still no book in print.  Here’s one of my problems.  The book that is sloshing around in my mind is more than just a book about Lyman Dillon.  It is a book, highlighting several people who lived along Old Military Road from 1839- as late as the 1850′s.  I’ve written the intro, and first chapter to the book several times, keep getting mixed feedback on the structure/ flow of the book and my mind is in a grid lock.  who do I listen to?  etc. etc.

I have probably a dozen different character sketches I would like to include (including Dillon and his family), in addition, I came across a whole shoebox of original research by Gus Norlin that I would like to devote a separate chapter to..  Gus was the local president of the Jones County Historical society several years ago, had been working on his own research.  After he passed away, his daughter Pam loaned me all of the material, I copy/scanned all of it…personal letters between Gus and a great grand daughter of Dillon, very old newspaper articles others had shared with him, etc. etc.  See what I mean?  There is a wealth of information, just begging to see the light of day…

So here’s where you come in… give me your suggestions on how I might organize this material.  If this winter is slow, work wise I would love to get the book  organized and ready to be proof read.

Sept 3, 2011  Douglas Monk

 It is two years ago today that I completed my walk, retracing the footsteps of Lyman Dillon, and later, Hansen and Briggs.

      I still want/need to get down on paper this book that is rolling around in my head.  I have a very rough draft completed, and have had two people (Steve and Grace) give me valuable feedback on how to proceed.  Seems I lack two things…time and creative energy. 

    When I personally sit down to write, if I’m not feeling it, then I can spend hours in front of a keyboard, pecking away, and later end up throwing it all away, so rather than me try to gut it out and do it, I’m waiting for the “Muse” to hit me again, because it will, it always does.  

       To this day, as I drive through Fairview I think of a funny account that happened in the bar there back in the mid-late 1800′s.  I would have to go digging through my notes, but am pretty sure I read it in one of the Jones County Historical journals….

        This sort of thing/ remembering the old stories, is one of the rich byproducts of my reading preparing for that walk.  It has given me a  deep  appreciation of local history. 

    Not sure who (if anyone) ever reads this blog, but just in case, wanted to let you know, that I still fully intend to write that book, (I have 2 other titles published to my name so I”m not just making noise) and thank you for your patience.  Sincerely, DM

#1  I am working on the rough draft of the book.  I have completed the first chapter and have a few people perusing it to see if I want to continue the format I am using

#2  If you’re looking for a guest speaker to present a program on this topic I have done so a few times..and for a fee, I would love to continue to do so.

Posted August 1 2009 DM

      If you’re interested, I now have a DVD for sale  with highlights of my walk retracing Military Road from Iowa City to Dubuque.  The day I passed through Anamosa, I stopped by the local newspaper, Becky, had a set of questions for me, she had the video tape recorder running, after I completed the walk, I sent her a DVD with my pictorial high lights.    Becky took my oral interview, added the photos and some music  and here is the end result.  I think it runs about 22 or 23 minutes all total. 

      I would be glad to send you one if you’re interested for $17.00 which includes postage.  Just drop me a note in the comment thread and I will get back to you.

     There is  11 ft by 41 foot  mural titled “Breaking the Prairie Sod designed by Grant Wood located at the Parks Library in Ames Iowa.   I happen to have a post card of that mural.  (see photo above)    Last  year my eye caught a small detail in the back of the mural…5 yoke of oxen breaking the praire sod….hummm, I thought to myself….I wonder…Grant Wood was born and raised in Eastern Iowa near Anamosa.   Grant Wood have probably been familiar with the account of Lyman Dillon plowing the 80 some mile furrow, and he (Dillon)  would have passed  through Anamosa on his way to  Dubuque.

Here is a close up of the detail I am referring to: 

      I still hope to travel to Ames to see this lifesize mural. 

    This coming Tuesday (December 16th 2008) I have been invited to speak at a local Questers group to talk about the walk.

     Yesterday (Friday December 12th 2008)  I got the most awesome DVD in the mail from Becky @  the Anamosa Local Access channel.  She created a 30 minute DVD of my adventure.  The day I passed through Anamosa I stopped by her office as she interviewed me.  This DVD is a compilation of that interview, photos I took from my walk and a TV interview I did the week after the walk.  I can’t say enough good things about Becky’s project…what an awesome keepsake for me!!!! Thank you Becky.

     Here is the text from this article in case you have a hard time reading it (above):

     Monticello man follows Dillon’s Furrow   by Doug Lindner Solon Economist

     Solon- In 1839, Iowa was on the edge of the western frontier.

     Aside from a few Indian and game trails, there was nothing but virgin prairie.

     That year, the U.S. Congress appropriated $20,000 for the construction of a military trail between the new capital, Iowa City, and the mining town of Dubuque.  After the route was surveyed, Lyman Dillon of Cascade was hired to bust the sod for the road with a team of oxen and a breaking plow.

     The military road eventually became Hwy 1, passing through Solon, Mt.Vernon  and Monticello.

     Last Spring, Monticello contractor Douglas Monk came upon an issue of The Palimpsest, a historic journal, in which two men retraced the original military trail in 1920.

     The account inspired Monk, who had grown up not  far from stretches of the old road, and he decided to take a walkabout along the trail, imagining the earthy origins of the area.

    “That’s kind of the reason I was  interested,”  Monk said after his walk was completed. “It went right past my stomping grounds.”

     Monk had been interested in the history of the region for several years, sparked by listening to the taped reminiscences of his grandfather.  He searched the web for historical references to the Monticello area and found the article from The Palimpsest.

     “My mind is always thinking of things I want to do in my life,” said the 50 yr -old father of four.  “I’m intentional about ideas like that.  This fit my list.”

     Married 29 years and with his own construction business, Monk has composed two books of letters and intends to write another on his experience walking Lyman Dillon’s trail.

     He began his journey on foot Monday September 8th (2008) from the former site of Butler’s Capital in Iowa City (about two blocks east of the Old Capital) and spent six days walking the 81 miles to Dubuque, where he arrived Saturday Sept.13th.

     Most of the way, he followed Hwy 1 passing through Solon the afternoon of his first day. As he did in most of the towns, he visited with interested historical groups or classrooms, sharing his research and his observations.

    In 1839, Iowa City wasn’t much of a town.

     Butler’s Capital was the first building in which the legislative meetings were held.  Monk said, but it doubled as a hotel and tavern.  Dubuque was a small mining town.  Monk said his research indicated the trail was military in name only, necessary for the congressional financing it received.

     Lyman Dillon was paid $3.00 a mile to break the trail with 10 oxen and a large plow.

     He also thinks Dillon probably had some help with the task.

      “He followed the ridges for the most part,”  Monk said. “That’s why (Highway) 151 snakes.  It’s following the contour of the ground.”

     Monk made no special preparations for the walk, and hadn’t been an avid walker prior to the trip, but suffered few ill effects from the journey.

     The hardest portion came walking downhill into Anamosa while the most scenic, he noted, was outside of Dubuque going through Key West.

    In a pasture near Langworthy, he found a part of the original road, a bridge with stonework still above ground.  ‘Most of it’s under the road,” he noted (editor’s note:  most of the original Old military road is under the new highways..where as this portion is still visible because it’s in a pasture on  the Elenore Jacobs farm just East of Langworthy)

     He also found Lyman Dillon’s tombstone in Cascade.

     Dillon was 39  and single at the time he plowed the furrow, owner of a local saw mill. (in cascade)

     Along the way, Monk imagined life in Iowa from 1839 to 1900, using accounts of Dillon’s furrow as a thread to follow the state’s history.  There are lots of interesting stories he picked up along the route, including those shared by Raphael Pisarik during Monk’s overnight stay in Solon.

     “There’s quite a bit of drama, ” he observed.

      Enough for a book, “On The Trail Of Lyman Dillon” which Monk has already started.  He’s still collecting stories, especially regarding Solon’s history.

     You can find out more about Monk’s walk by visiting http://onthetrailoflymandillon.wordpress.com/

     Wagon train from about 1980

     This will be a short post.  I’ve completed my first goal of walking Old Military Road/ Lyman Dillon’s furrow on foot, my next step is to write a book titled  “On The Trail Of Lyman Dillon”. 

     People love stories,  so this book will be filled with stories….

       One section of the book will be devoted to stories/ accounts of early life along the route from Iowa City to Dubuque before 1900.  My thought is, if someone else wants to follow this route, they can read this book ahead of time, or as they are traveling, and hear about the various things that have taken place here so many years ago…the horse thieves along the Cedar River, the 3 Brodie brothers who were caught and hanged within an hour, the Wade Family from Monticello, caught in a freak blizzard, leaving behind 9 children, the bears, wolves, elk, trading posts, grain mills, ghost towns  along the way..people and places that no longer exist except in out of print books…I think you get the idea….so if you happen to have photos/ stories along the route you’d be willing to copy/scan/ loan so I can include them in the book, I would love to hear from you…leave me a comment and I will get back to you.

I’m home

6 days

81.8 miles

172,763 steps later.

Here are 5 photos of my last 6 days walking in the footsteps of Lyman Dillon and Old Military Road from Iowa City to Dubuque….

Sunrise North of Solon on day 2

Picture of my footsteps looking back near Langworthy

Looking back at our house as I leave for Cascade.

\

Walking in the drizzle on day 6

Mrs DM and I at the end of the road

      Here are just a few  highlights of the trip.

       While I am on my feet all day at work, I am not a “walker”, and yet, I did not get any blisters, my feet never hurt,  only  felt  stiff at the end of day 3 as I was coming down a long hill into Anamosa.

     I woke up refreshed every morning , 4 of the nights I stayed  in homes of people I didn’t (or barely) knew.

     It rained 2 of the 6 days, which only added to my sense of being on an  adventure.

     A couple of  you mused there  would be a spiritual component to this adventure and there definitely was.  I’ll probably write more about that later.

      My next goal (after writing thank you’s) is to contact the people I met in each town and work on my book “On The Trail Of Lyman Dillon“ 

      When I’ve mentioned writing a book,  I’ve  encountered a few  “Oh sure you are”  looks.    What the nay sayers don’t know is I already have 2 books in print.  I realize I probably sound a little testy  as I write this, but I have very little time for negative, pessimistic, people.   

  Here’s  a quote by Theodore Roosevelt which  comes to mind when I meet a nay sayer :

        “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

    ______________________________________________________________________

 As a side note, this adventure made it in (7) different newspapers,  (1) TV clip (w/ a 2nd pending),   a chance to talk w/(4) High School history classes and (3) history groups while on the walk.  We finished the trip with a small reception in Dubuque @ Lot One- site of  Tim Fanning’s Log Tavern….it was a full week.

     I have begun to plan a walkabout for myself  for the Fall of 2008.

       1839,  Iowa is  part of the Western frontier.  Congress has just  appropriated $20,000 to construct a military  road , from the mining town of Dubuque (On the Mississippi River)    to Iowa City, site of the new capital.   A  100 mile stretch from Dubuque to Iowa City is  surveyed, and  Lyman Dillon is hired to mark  the  route by plowing a 100 mile  furrow.      You need to stop for just a moment and appreciate what his job is…. drive  5 head  of oxen  attached to  a sod busting plow ,   100 mile  through virgin prairie and Western frontier.   

       I recently read an account of Marcus L. Hansen and John E Briggs  who  retraced this route  84 years after the fact  (1923) : http://iagenweb.org/history/palimpsest/feb1921.htm

(If you enjoy local history you’ll want to read this article)

    Here I sit,  84 years removed from their “walkabout”  (2007)  and something inside of me begins  to stir.        One of the goals of our local  school system  is to produce “life long learners“. What better way to appreciate the history of Eastern Iowa  than to  research the towns and people who once populated our area  and then  retrace  the  100 mile route of Dillons Furrow/ Old Military road?   Step back in time  to  an era of   circuit riding preachers, stage coaches, river boat captains,  horse thieves, Indians on the move, wagon trains headed West to California, Salt Lake City, and beyond.

     My tentative plans at this point to make this walk about more enjoyable include:

     1.  Acquire a copy of the original Military Road map  2.  Make a list of the settlements along the route (both those still in existance and those long gone)   3.  Contact the Office of the State Archaeologist.  4.  Read up on any significant people or structures from 1839 to 1899.  5.  Take good notes and  photos to document my  project, from beginning to end.

    The older I get, the more I recognize the value of a balanced life.  There is more to life than $.   This walkabout combines  local history, exercise, adventure, intrigue,  the opportunity to meet new people, and a wealth of research to work on over the Winter months as I would prepare for September 2008.  I’m anticipating making the trip in 4 days.  If you are at all interested, I am opening this trip up to whomever else would like to join me….just jot me a note on the comment section of my blog and we can talk more. And as always,  Thanks for reading!

   note to self:  I need to get in touch with someone in Solon to see if there is a B and B locally or something similar  From Solon to Mt Vernon it is approx. 10.5 miles.  I already have an offer to spend the night in Mt Vernon by a friends’ mom.  If I leave Iowa City on Monday, that would put me in Mt Vernon Tuesday night.

From Mt Vernon to Martelle it is 6.9 miles.    We might have some type of small reception when I get to Martelle…If I left by 8 AM that should put me in Martelle by 10:30   Martelle has a historical marker for Dillon’s Furrow. 

     From Martelle to the East Edge of Anamosa  (through Fairvew)  it is 8.9 miles.  (That would be a Wednesday night)…I am thinking of staying @ the Super 8 motel that night….unless between now and September I find out about a B and B in Anamosa or stay with some friends that live in Anamosa…we’ll see….

    From Anamosa to the edge of Langworthy it is 6.2 Miles  Hannah B. who teaches an Alternative High School program locally, approached me last year about  having her class join me when I get to this point in the walk.  There is an original portion of Military road just East of Langworthy in a farmer’s pasture  It is also the  location where the husband and wife and infant got caught in a blizzard  (last name of Wade) leaving behind 10 children.

     If I get a good start Thursday morning from  Anamosa I could get to this point in the walk late morning, give a presentation to the class  and finish the day on the East side of Monticello…staying at a local B and B. (Thursday night) 

    If someone happens to read this before September 2008 and has any suggestions for lodging in the Solon area…please let me know. !  Thanks