Driftless Rivers

Proposed National ParkIowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota
The Mississippi River braiding through wooded islands under low clouds in the Driftless country
All proposed National ParksDriftless RiversNo active campaign
Location
Iowa/Wisconsin/Minnesota
Current protection
Effigy Mounds National Monument, Wyalusing State Park, Wildcat Mountain State Park/Kickapoo Valley
Status
Dormant campaign
Tier
Tier 1 · National Park
Undiscovered America
Featured in the film and the book

Why should it be a National Park?

Unless you are from the sections of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, or Illinois that border the Mississippi River it's very unlikely you have ever heard the term "driftless" before. Much of the land that makes up the north-central region of the United States has been famously crushed flat by glaciers, but the Driftless Area is a notable exception. The region consists of hills, cliffs, valleys, and plateaus that the glaciers managed to skip over Today these rare hills rise above the encompassing plains as a monument to what the landscape was like before the last ice-age. Several rivers and creeks carried the waters of the melting glaciers through the hills and carved lowlands. This shifting terrain creates a network of waterways that all eventually empty into the mighty Mississippi River.

Currently, no area designated a National Park highlights the Mississippi River, one of the nation's most defining natural features. The closest comparable areas along the river are two sites that subvert the natural landscape rather than protect it. While the Mississippi River is a major element of the Driftless Area, it is not the only feature that makes the region special. Scattered throughout the area are state and federal parks focusing on this unique setting and history. Greatest among them is Effigy Mounds National Monument, which showcases not only the extremes of the natural environment with its cliffs and expansive views above the river, but also the amazing Native American earthwork constructions in the shapes of animals and other symbols.

The history of National Park Campaigns

This is the surprise of the round: the Upper Mississippi blufflands were the subject of a thirty-year National Park campaign (1901–1932) with a string of congressional bills, an NPS inspection, and a Roger Toll survey that finally killed the park idea and steered Iowa toward Effigy Mounds National Monument (1949). The Driftless Rivers National Park Foundation (2013) is the modern heir to a "Mississippi Valley National Park" idea that predates the National Park Service.

Distinct National Park attempts
Distinct National Park campaigns: 3 — (1) 1915–1923 Kenyon/Haugen bills (at least 3 sessions of bills); (2) 1929–1932 Haugen four-state proposal ended by the Toll survey; (3) 2013–present
Driftless
Rivers foundation
Other designation attempts
refuge 1924; monument 1936–49; parkway 1946; refuge 1989; Kickapoo Valley Reserve 1996–2000

Sources

  • NPS, Effigy Mounds: Figures on the Landscape — Historic Resource Study (2003), ch. 8 and endnotes 145–169 (which cite the Kenyon/Haugen bills, Dorr's 1917 report, Haugen's 1929 proposal, and Toll's 1932 report to Albright)
  • Roger Toll, report on the proposed Upper Mississippi National Park (1932, NPS/NARA)
  • Iowa Conservation Commission records
  • Congressional Record indexes 1915–1923 (bill numbers to pull)
  • Will Dilg / Izaak Walton League histories of the 1924 refuge act
  • Wikipedia, List of proposed National Parks of the United States
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  1. 1901

    Iowa Park and Forestry Association founded (Thomas Macbride, president); it "lobbied for the establishment of a National Park in northeast Iowa."

  2. April 6, 1909

    State Rep. George H. Schulte (Clayton County) addresses the Iowa General Assembly for a "national site near McGregor" — "pleasuring grounds" for future generations; backed by Ellison Orr, Bohumil Shimek, Louis Pammel, Macbride.

  3. 1915

    FIRST FEDERAL BILLS. Sen. William S. Kenyon (R-IA) introduces a bill for a 1,700–2,000-acre National Park to preserve the mounds; Rep. Gilbert Haugen (R-IA) files a companion. Interior halts action pending a $1,000 study.

  4. 1917

    NPS inspector M.L. Dorr surveys the Upper Mississippi; "no proposals or actions resulted." Orr proposes a 10,000-acre park from McGregor to Sny Magill Creek plus channel islands and Wisconsin bluffs; C.H. McNider's essay "What the Mississippi Valley National Park Would Mean to Iowa."

  5. 1917–1923

    Kenyon and Haugen "introduced a series of bills in Congress for establishment of a Mississippi National Park in northeast Iowa, all of which died in committee."

  6. July 1919

    American School of Wildlife Protection founded at McGregor Heights (1,000 attendees), "a significant force in the National Park movement in Iowa during the 1920s."

  7. 1924

    Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge Act (Izaak Walton League/Will Dilg), sparked by a Corps plan to drain the Winneshiek Bottoms; it "renewed interest in a National Park."

  8. 1929

    Haugen submits a vastly larger proposal: 220 miles of river frontage in four states (4 Iowa, 1 Illinois, 8 Wisconsin, 4 Minnesota counties), from south of Minneapolis–St. Paul to 45 miles north of Dubuque.

  9. 1930

    Congress authorizes a five-day investigative survey led by Roger Toll (Yellowstone superintendent).

  10. 1930s

    The Munn family donates Pike's Peak acreage to the Biological Survey hoping to advance the park; when it fails, the land goes to Iowa → Pike's Peak State Park (1937).

  11. 1931

    After studying a Mississippi Valley park, Roger W. Toll recommends saving the Indian mounds as a small monument, the beginning of Effigy Mounds National Monument.

  12. October 8, 1931

    Roger W. Toll completes his report on the proposed Upper Mississippi River National Park, rejecting a park but recommending a national monument for the mounds.

  13. 1932

    TOLL REPORT KILLS THE PARK. Toll finds the scenery "typical rather than extraordinary" and the mix of rivers, floodplains, and towns unmanageable; recommends instead "a national monument, comprising some of the best Indian mounds." Director Albright concurs: "preservation of the mounds (the effigies), while there is still time to save them, will be of infinite value to posterity." Local interests "quickly abandoned the notion of a National Park."

  14. 1936

    Iowa Conservation Commission (Keyes/Orr) proposes a national monument; October 1937 NPS team recommends the Yellow River, Jennings-Liebhardt, and Sny Magill groups; 1936 Yellow River State Forest; by 1939 the state meets NPS's 1,000-acre minimum (Commissioners Margo Frankel and Louise Parker).

  15. 1942–46

    WWII pause; postwar, both the monument and a Mississippi River parkway are revived; the parkway languishes over a $625,000 state cost; 1946 Advisory Board certifies national significance.

  16. October 25, 1949

    Truman proclaims Effigy Mounds National Monument (1,000 acres); additions 1951–52, 1955 (Founder's Pond), 1961 (Ferguson tract), 1962 (Sny Magill, from the Corps), December 15, 2000 (1,045-acre Heritage Addition via the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation).

  17. 1962 / 1975 / 1996–2000

    Corps' La Farge dam on the Kickapoo authorized, halted, and its lands converted to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve (state/Ho-Chunk).

  18. 1989

    Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge established.

  19. 2006

    Bryan Stanley's book The Becoming of Driftless Rivers National Park proposes a park centered on Crawford County, Wisconsin.

  20. 2013

    Driftless Rivers National Park Foundation (La Crosse) proposes a ~375,000-acre park in Crawford and Vernon counties; petition to Congress; no bill; described as dormant in 2026. (driftlessrivers.org)

  21. 2023

    A Rochester meteorologist proposes a Driftless National Park & Preserve around Minnesota's Whitewater area; the proposal is shelved.