Unique Features of the Loess Hills
The Loess Hills have several unique characteristics.
In road cuts and other places where soil has been removed to expose a cross-section, the soil is typically uniformly loess. Only in the northern and southern ends of the Loess Hills is bedrock naturally exposed.
Loess is composed mainly of quartz silt, and is highly erosive. When exposed to water, loess will dissolve like sugar, hence the nickname "sugar clay" given to it by locals. Its composition also allows it to stand nearly vertical for long periods of time, as can be seen in road cuts throughout the region. Loess often sloughs on steep slopes, resulting in cat steps that are common throughout the hills.
National Significance of the Loess Hills Archaeology
The Loess Hills, known to scholars and laypeople alike as one of North America’s natural treasures, is also one of North America’s archaeological treasures. This unique landscape harbors hundreds of well-preserved earthlodge dwellings and palisaded villages built by the ancestral Plains Indians.
The archaeological legacy of the Loess Hills lies in the rich archaeological record that boasts of over 1,000 Late Prehistoric Glenwood earthlodges in the south and pairs of palisaded Mill Creek villages and ancient cornfields in the north. These two very differently expressed ancestral Plains Indian cultures occupied the Loess Hills at the same time and provide an unparalleled opportunity to explore 300 years of cultural diversity in this unique landscape. Transcending time, the archaeological legacy of the region is also tied to the struggle for Native Indian rights and events that would be instrumental in leading the nation toward protection and reburial of Native Indian remains. These characteristics are intrinsic to the archaeology of the Loess Hills and they are of unequivocal national significance.
Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery
When Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led their Corps of Discovery through this region in the summer of 1804, the Hills were covered with prairie. The scant trees that existed hugged the water ways. At that time, Oto and Missouri tribes lived in the southern part of the Hills and the Omaha in the mid-section of the Hills.
Change Comes to the Loess Hills
Around the 1850's, change came to the Loess Hills. Farms, communities and roads checked the wilderness that had cleansed the prairie of the always encroaching trees and woodland plants and, as you can see now, trees blanket most of the hills. Of the prairie that had covered the Hills, only 22,000 acres remain with about 4,500 acres being in the Broken Kettle Grasslands, the largest self-sustaining parcel of prairie in Iowa.
Now surrounded by forests and developed lands, the pockets of prairie in the Hills are islands of prairie flora and fauna not found until hundreds of miles to the west and not seen elsewhere in Iowa. Among these animals are the prairie rattlesnake (only in a very small area near Westfield in the northern Hills), plains pocket mouse, upland sandpiper, zebra swallowtail, ornate box turtle and plains spadefoot toad. Among the plants are ten-petal blazing star, spear grass, tumble grass and prairie moonwort. The native yucca is in the easternmost limit in North America.
Resources for Loess Hills Landowners
General Loess Hills Educational Resources and Websites:
Videos
Books and Academic Papers
Conservation and Recreation
The Loess Hills have several unique characteristics.
In road cuts and other places where soil has been removed to expose a cross-section, the soil is typically uniformly loess. Only in the northern and southern ends of the Loess Hills is bedrock naturally exposed.
Loess is composed mainly of quartz silt, and is highly erosive. When exposed to water, loess will dissolve like sugar, hence the nickname "sugar clay" given to it by locals. Its composition also allows it to stand nearly vertical for long periods of time, as can be seen in road cuts throughout the region. Loess often sloughs on steep slopes, resulting in cat steps that are common throughout the hills.
National Significance of the Loess Hills Archaeology
The Loess Hills, known to scholars and laypeople alike as one of North America’s natural treasures, is also one of North America’s archaeological treasures. This unique landscape harbors hundreds of well-preserved earthlodge dwellings and palisaded villages built by the ancestral Plains Indians.
The archaeological legacy of the Loess Hills lies in the rich archaeological record that boasts of over 1,000 Late Prehistoric Glenwood earthlodges in the south and pairs of palisaded Mill Creek villages and ancient cornfields in the north. These two very differently expressed ancestral Plains Indian cultures occupied the Loess Hills at the same time and provide an unparalleled opportunity to explore 300 years of cultural diversity in this unique landscape. Transcending time, the archaeological legacy of the region is also tied to the struggle for Native Indian rights and events that would be instrumental in leading the nation toward protection and reburial of Native Indian remains. These characteristics are intrinsic to the archaeology of the Loess Hills and they are of unequivocal national significance.
Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery
When Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led their Corps of Discovery through this region in the summer of 1804, the Hills were covered with prairie. The scant trees that existed hugged the water ways. At that time, Oto and Missouri tribes lived in the southern part of the Hills and the Omaha in the mid-section of the Hills.
Change Comes to the Loess Hills
Around the 1850's, change came to the Loess Hills. Farms, communities and roads checked the wilderness that had cleansed the prairie of the always encroaching trees and woodland plants and, as you can see now, trees blanket most of the hills. Of the prairie that had covered the Hills, only 22,000 acres remain with about 4,500 acres being in the Broken Kettle Grasslands, the largest self-sustaining parcel of prairie in Iowa.
Now surrounded by forests and developed lands, the pockets of prairie in the Hills are islands of prairie flora and fauna not found until hundreds of miles to the west and not seen elsewhere in Iowa. Among these animals are the prairie rattlesnake (only in a very small area near Westfield in the northern Hills), plains pocket mouse, upland sandpiper, zebra swallowtail, ornate box turtle and plains spadefoot toad. Among the plants are ten-petal blazing star, spear grass, tumble grass and prairie moonwort. The native yucca is in the easternmost limit in North America.
Resources for Loess Hills Landowners
General Loess Hills Educational Resources and Websites:
- U.S.-China Exchange on Loess Landforms
- Loess Hills Alliance Comprehensive Plan
- The Loess Hills of Western Iowa: Special Resource Study and Environmental Assessment by National Park Service
- USGS - Geology of the Loess Hills
- Iowa Geological Survey - Loess Hills
- IPTV - Iowa Land & Sky: Loess Hills & Prairies
- IPTV - Iowa Pathways - Iowa's Loess Hills
- The Nature Conservancy - Iowa Loess Hills
- Loess Hills Archaeology - PowerPoint presentation by Lynn Alex
- Office of the State Archaeologist - Glenwood Culture
- Briar Cliff College Center for Prairie Studies
- Iowa Conservationist magazine Loess Hills issue (April 1984)
- Government interest in the Loess Hills - William Blackburn Consulting, Ltd.
- Loess Hills History - William Blackburn Consulting, Ltd.
- Loess Hills Prairie Seminar
- Western Iowa's Loess Hills - Coloring Book
Videos
- IPTV - Formation and Sustainability of Iowa's Loess Hills
- Loess Hills: A Visual Tour
- The Iowa Loess Hills - RDG
- John Liu presentation on China Loess Hills Restoration
Books and Academic Papers
- Fragile Giants: A Natural History of the Loess Hills, by Cornelia F. Mutel
- Land of the Fragile Giants: Landscapes, Environments, and Peoples of the Loess Hills. Eds. Cornelia Mutel & Mary Swander
- Geology of the Loess Hills Region
- Immense Journey - Loess Hills Cultural Resources Study
- Fire History at the Eastern Great Plains Margin, Missouri River Loess Hills
- The Vegetation of the Loess Hills Landform Along the Missouri River
- Community and physiological ecology of native grasslands in the Loess Hills of western Iowa
- Preserving Natural Diversity in Iowa's Loess Hills: Challenges and Opportunities
- Land Use Change and Policy in Iowa’s Loess Hills
- The (loess) hills: power and democracy in a "new " landform
- Characterizing and Comprehending Land Use Change in the Loess Hills Region
- A place in the hills: fiscal impact and social analysis of suburbanization in the Loess Hills counties of Iowa
Conservation and Recreation
- Fremont County Conservation Board
- Golden Hills RC&D
- Harrison County Conservation Board
- Hungry Canyons Alliance
- Iowa Department of Natural Resources
- Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation
- Iowa Pheasants Forever
- Iowa Prairie Network
- Iowa Soil and Water Conservation Districts
- Loess Hills National Scenic Byway
- Loess Hills Audubon Society
- Loess Hills Hospitality Association
- Loess Hills Preservation Society
- Loess Hills State Forest
- Mills County Conservation Board
- Monona County Conservation Board
- Plymouth County Conservation Board
- Pottawattamie County Conservation Board
- Preparation Canyon State Park
- Stone State Park
- Waubonsie State Park
- Western Iowa Tourism Region
- Woodbury County Conservation Board