Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1858-01-23
a wALLsD RAKE IN 1owA.

ls9iew ~ alafT $500 #!si S2&& 1851
Mr. Clarkson writes from Grundy
county, Iowa, to the Cincinnati Gazette
concerning great wonder in Wright
county, in this State-a walled lake.
This Lake lies in the midst Of yast
plain-the rich, gently undulating prai-
RE extending for many miles in every
direction. The Lake covers an area Of
about 1900 acres. The water is clear
and cold, with hard, sandy bottom,
from two to twenty five feet deep.
There is strip Of timber about half
way round 1t, probably ten rods wide,
being the only timber in many miles.
There is a aOaA Of heavy stone all
round it. ssa - .t-t sir sat
It is no accidental matter. 1t has
been built with human hands. In some
places the land is higher than the Lake,
IN which case the wall only amounts to
something like Rip Rap protection.
This, l believe, is what engineers CALI it.
But in other places the water is higher
in the Lake than the prairie outside of
the wall. The wall in some places is
10 feet high it is ID feet wide at the
base, sloping up both sides to S feet
wide on the top. The wall is built en-
tirely of boulders, from three tons in
size, down to fifty pounds. They are
all what are called lost rock. I am no
geologist, and consequently can give no
learned description Of them. They are
not, however, natives "to the manor
born. {" Nor has the wall been made
by the washing away of the earth and
leaving the rocks. There is no native
rock in this region. Besides this, is a
continuous wall, two miles of which, at
least, is higher than the land. The top
Of the wall is level, while the land is
undulating-so the wall is in some pla-
ces two feet, and in Others ten feet high.
These rocks, many of them at least,
must have been brought long distance,
probably five or ten miles. In Wright
county the best rocks are scattered
pretty freely, but as you approach this
Lake they disappear showing that
they have been gathered by some agen-
cy-when, or by whom, history will
never unfold. Some Of the largest
oaks in the grove are growing up
through the wall, pushing the rocks i'll,
in some cases, outside, in others, ac-
commodating their shape to the rocks.
The Lake abounds with excellent fish.
The land in that township yet belongs
to the government.
When l was there in the spring of
1856, the wind had blown large piece
Of ice against the southwest part of
the wall and had knocked it down so
that the water was running out, and
flooding some Of the settlers, and they
were about to repair the wall to protect
their crops. It is beautiful farm land
nearly all around this lovely Lake.
The readers of the Gazette should
not imagine that the wall around this
Lake is as regular and as nice as the
wall around the Fountain in front of
the City Hall, in New York, nor need
any entertain the theory that it is nat
ural wall but it has been built hun
dreds, and probably thousands of years.
The antiquarian may speculate by whom
this mighty, as we'll as ornamental work
was done, but it will only be specula-
ton. Ia.
Notwithstanding the water in the
Lake is pure and cool, there is no visi-
BILE feeder or outlet. This ake is about
twelve miles north of the located line
of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad,
and about one hundred and fifty miles
west of the former place. The time is
coming when the Lake will be a place
Of great public resort.
49, ~