DVD with Highlights of my walk available now

 

      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.

Grant Wood and Lyman Dillon Post # 28

     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.

Dillon’s Furrow Article

 

     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 https://onthetrailoflymandillon.wordpress.com/

Post # 25 After The Walk- My Initial Thoughts

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.

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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.

Post #13 Reading / Research Continues

I wanted to post a brief update in case you are one of the few people who have been reading/ checking out this blog. We haven’t done any field trips since that last “dry run” I did Sept. 15th.  I have been busy however….I am continuing to read  from the various books I’ve picked up on local history….here is a sampling of some of the stories I’ve come across.

     The “Know Nothings”    Early in Jones county Iowa history, in the Castle Grove township to be exact,  there was a group of locals who called themselves the “know nothings”.  Basically, they were a  group of red necks who were opposed to Catholic Immigrants  moving into the area.  The day before the local Catholic church in Castle Grove was to dedicate their new church building, it was burnt to the ground by this   group.  They called themselves the “know nothings” because when they were arrested they would always say “I know nothing”….I googled the name and sure enough, there is stuff on the internet about them.   You can read more about them here: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0827946.html

     Another incident I came across took place in Iowa City in the 1857.   A certain Philip Clark returned from California after no communication with his wife for 7 years…(Sometimes men would leave for California for the gold rush, leaving behind a wife…they were called “California widows”.  To make a long story short,  Philip Clark did come home, his wife had divorced him….sold the farm, and at this point, things started to get crazy….some of the key players include a hired thug, a whaling captain, a barefoot boy, 2 lynch mobs, a drowning…yep, it has been interesting  to read  of these incidences of local mob violence….

     I ordered a book this week of historical sketches from Dubuque Iowa….still have several pages to digest from the two volume Jones County History….I’m hoping this Winter to catch up on my reading….My next field trip is tentatively headed back to Dubuque to check out the bar that is situated on the Tim Fanning’s log cabin site.  I’m toying around with reserving  some room there for a celebration when  I finally make it to Dubuque  Sept. 2008….

Post # 12 Thoughts after my “dry run”

    

 

 

Picture of the person who littered the road I walked today.

       I walked 11  miles today.   A friend suggested investing in some reflective  clothing   so I picked up an orange hunting vest this morning.   My son J. gave me a ride to my drop off point, I asked him to  bring me a plastic garbage bag to put cans in as I walked.  One thing lead to the other, at the end of the walk, I had 67 cans and bottles worth $3.35 plus a quarter I found .  I decided, I would take the money and start a game of “bigger and better”.  In case you haven’t heard of it, it works like this:  you take something small and trade it for something bigger and better…(ie  you start out with a paper clip, trade it for a pensil, trade that for a pen, etc.)  Well, I have $3.60 to start the snowball rolling…probably going to hit a garage sale and see what I can find, from that point, I’ll keep you posted as to what I have to trade, if I have something you’d be willing to trade up for, let me know.  I heard of someone  getting a house this way, you never know 🙂  I think I’ll create a separate page on this blog to record this adventure.

       Here are some other things I discovered today:

 1.  Even though my job is  physical (I’m a builder, on my feet all day, climbing ladders, shoveling cement, etc.)  apparently I use a different muscle group than what you use when you walk 11 miles.

2.  Bush lite is the beer of choice for road drinkers in Iowa 🙂

3.  Someone in Iowa is missing their cell phone and hearing aids.  (I found what was left of them in a black travel bag, run over a gizillon times/no name)

4.Lyman Dillon was in shape!  I read he plowed up to 10 miles a day walking behind 10 oxen and a plow….his legs had to be tired walking on that freshly turned praire.

5.  I need a small back pack and water.  I wrongly assumed since I thought I was in shape from work, I could make it between my last watering hole and my parked car :-(….very thirsty by the time I walked 7 miles

6.  It would have been very hot at the time Lyman Dillon originally plowed the furrow.  He made it to Dubuque by the first of September..which mean he was plowing in the heat of August/ would have been brutal.

7.  There are a lot of “frat” houses overlooking the river in Iowa City.

8.  There is a historical marker in a park on the edge of Iowa City on Dubuque street.  The original mill stones from an old mill are set there along with a plaque from the 1840’s

9.  If you wear an orange vest and carry a plastic bag you look “official” people think you are doing community service

10.  I averaged 2.7 miles per hour today

post #11 Dry Run Scheduled for Saturday the 15th

     Saturday Sept. 15th, the weather  promises to be good.  I intend to go to Iowa City/Old Capital and walk to Solon in preparation for next years trek.   (I want to see just how long it takes, and what I feel like at the end of the day, in order for me to get a better sense of what I’m in for next Fall. 

      As I have met various people the past couple of months and told them about the project, I have already had :

1.  An offer to put me up the night we are in Mt Vernon

2.  An offer to accompany me and video tape

3.  A request to walk the last portion as I get to Dubuque

4.  A request to walk the first day from Old Capital to the edge of Iowa City (from a friend who has back trouble, but really wants to be a part of this in some fashion). 

    Jokingly I told my wife I feel a little like Forest Gump.  Remember that scene towards the end of the movie where he is running?  (his beard is long, and there is a group of people following him)

     On a personal note, my beard is the longest it’s ever been, I can’t wait to see what it looks like next September.  Here is a picture of a beard I really like:

     That my friend is a beard!

Post #10 Visit To Iowa City and Old Capital

       Monday 9/3/07 I headed to Iowa City to check out “Old Capital”  location of the capital for the territory and eventual state of Iowa from 1839-1857.   My wife was out of town and I felt in the mood for a short road trip.

        As I walked around “Old Capital”,  the voices of the past seemed to cry out for recognition.   I’ve  read accounts of  intrigue,  financial turbulence, contractors who see the handwriting on the walls and walk away from a 1/2 finished building, a new state that borrows money to pay for this building, then can’t make the payments on the loan, etc.  it causes me to appreciate this historical site all the more.

    One quick story, from the book  Iowa City/ A Contribution To The Early History Of Iowa by Benjamin F. Shambaugh published in 1893 last month.  In it, he describes the battle  between Iowa City and Burlington to be the site of the Territorial Capital.  

      The morning of  May 1st 1839, found a small group of somewhat roughly clad pioneer settlers collected at Naolean  (town near present day Iowa City) to await the arrival of the commissioners.  Of over three months these sturdy farmers had been looking forward to the coming of the comissioners with intense interest and delight.  But on this particular morning they carried a look which betrayed anxiety.  Each man desired that the location be made NEAR his own cabin, yet at the same time he was fearful …for they all knew that they had, to the  land they occupied, no rights which the United States or the Territory of Iowa were bound to respect.  (in other words, they were all squatters and if the land they had already worked on was picked, they would loose their property and get nothing for it)

     But as the day advanced this anxiety took an unexpected turn.

       Burlington and the counties to the southeastern part of the Territory were bitterly opposed to locating the seat of government in Johnson County.  And it was thought that an attempt had been made to prevent the majority of the commissioners from meeting on the 1st day of May as directed by law.  (In other words, if there wasn’t a majority of commissioners there that day to pick out a site for the capital, then by default, it may stay in Burlington) 

      It is said, that about noon the excitement  became intense when Chauncey Swan mounted a dry-goods box and made a short speech to the agiated crowd, presenting the situation as follows:  “The Legislative Assembly had directed the locating commissioners to meet at Napoleaon on the first day of May.  Should a majority of them fail to meet on that day, their actions would be null and void.  Chauncey Swan then called for a volunteer who would undertake to bring another commissioner before midnight.  This certainly seemed like a hopeless undertaking; for John Ronalds of Louisa County, the nearest commissioner, resided 35 miles from Napoleon.  It would, therefore, require a ride of seventy miles in 12 hours, including all stoppages and ferrying the Cedar River both going and coming.  But a young lad named Philip Clark stepped boldly out and volunteered his services….(to ride the 70 mile round trip, find John Ronald and bring him back before 12 midnight )

      Footnote:  remember, this is 1839  there are no roads, no bridges, and vast unmarked prairies, not to mention the fact, what if John Ronald wasn’t home when he got there.

     This is getting too long so I will wrap it up.  Clark and Ronald did get back by midnight, although, there was some speculation, somebody may have turned the hand back on their watch to buy a little more time ?  🙂  Until next time  DM

Post #8 Old Books/ A Wealth Of Lost History

      

 

      Saturday August 18th found us heading to the Marion HY VEE coffee area to meet w/ C.P.  from the Iowa Office of Archaeology to hear about the “dig” @ Bowen’s Prairie before Hwy 151 went through the area.    She had e-mailed me several great documents on the project, plus another one pertaining to a dig they’d done over by Langworthy during the same time.  I was just as interested in meeting her as any information she might share.  I wanted to get a sense of her passion for history.  We had a great visit over coffee, with an offer to show us around the Historical archives in Iowa City maybe later this winter. 

      During our car trip to Marion J. A.   and I were talking about the account she’d told me about the family that had been  lost in the winter storm over by Langworthy Iowa.  She told me she’d read the story in a two volume set called   History Of Jones County Iowa  (Illustrated)  published in 1910.  “What” I said, you mean it has additional information the History of Jones County 1879   Doesn’t have???  “Oh yes” J.A.  said.  I’m thinking to myself…II have to get a copy of that set !!!!  I’d also heard from someone who’d purchased  A Centennial History Of Mount Vernon, Iowa 1847-1947   on e-bay.  After I’d heard there was such a book in existance, I wanted to get a copy of that as well.  I”m sure I could check some of these books out @ the local library, but it is such a hassle, and you never know when the “urge” (or free block of time) will happen to do some reading, so a personal copy is a priority for me.

      After we left HY Vee, we stopped @ an old book store/coffee shop called  The Sanctuary  in Marion Iowa.  Two hours later, we left w/ the book on Mt Vernon, plus A Glimpse of Iowa In 1846 (The Emigrant’s Guide),  and Iowa City an Illustrated History  by Gerald Mansheim.    I called an antique store in Anamosa called “The Gathering” , asking about the two volume Jones County History 1910.  She had it!!!  $160.00 later, it was mine.  (she only had the original set, and I’m hoping, I can recoop some of this after I publish a book my adventure)

    Here is an excerpt from History Of Jones County Iowa 1910 talking about that family who died near Langworthy I’d written about in post # 7″:
    

     ” I think it was the winter of 56 and 57 that we had a big blizzard.  Sunday morning was fair and warm for the time of the year.  The day turned out to be beautiful until about four o’clock in the afternoon.  Nearly every one that didn’t have company went some wheree.  We were at a neighbor’s that day, but got home just as the storm broke in its fury.  It was all my father could do to get from the stable to the house.  On what is now the Hosford farm on the main road, lived an Englishman by the name of Wade.  The farm was then owned by Mr. Walworth.  They were our neighbors to the South.  They had a family of ten children, the eldest a boy of nineteen and the youngest about a year old.  In the morning the father and mother drove out near Langworthy, taking the baby with them, to a Mr. Scriven’s to spend the day and also to bring one of the daughters home with them to do some sewing.  They started back while the sun was yet shining.  The storm came up so suddenly that in a few minutes it was impossible to see anything before  them.   Before they reached home they lost their way.  The horses couldn’t face the storm. ….”

     The account continues….but I need to wrap this up. 

     I’d like to include the complete account  in my yet to be published  book  On The Trail Of Lyman Dillon  

Post # 7 Original Portion of Military Road discovered in Pasture Near Langworthy Iowa

    August 5th 2007 , I called E. J.  to see if we could stop @ her house.    She and M.  were talking the week before about our plans to retrace Old Military Road and E.J.  mentioned that we were welcome to come to her house…there was a portion of the original road and bridge still in existance in her pasture.  The gravel road past her house is called Military Road…  is that what you mean I asked her?….No, E.J.  said, the Original road is in my pasture….several thousand feet East  of the gravel road, and there is even the remains of the bridge over Kitty Creek still standing  (see photo above). 

    We walked East through the cow pasture, and as we approached the area, you can still see the contour of the pasture shaped as a road bed and ditch.  It goes right up to Kitty Creek, there are still stone embankments on both sides of the creek.  The stone has been reinforced with a concrete wall on both sides, and the creek is starting to undermine the stonework. 

    EJ    proceeded to tell us, a story about this portion of the road.  She didn’t have any names or specfic dates, but she’d been told several years ago a mother and child perished on this portion of the road in the Winter.    We’d heard a similiar account from J.A.    A mother, father and small child had headed to Monticello one clear winter day to get something? (sewing supplies?)  they’d left the rest of the family home thinking it would be a quick trip, taking just the baby.  On their way home it started snowing, quickly lost visibility, dad decided to turn the wagon over to shelter the wife, and set out on foot to get help.    When the parents didn’t get home, the children got nervous and got a hold of some neighbors, they found both of the parents had died along with the small child.  (I got all of this from JA, a local historian) 

      I waded across Kitty Creek to get a close up view of the bridge.  It is very close to the South bound lane of Hwy 151 close to the rock cut by Langworthy.  In the past I’ve seen the cement retaining walls from a distance and just figgured they were all that remained of a railroad bridge that is also in this area.   Another fruitful day trip!