Western Research and Demonstration Farm
Authors: Jazlyn Beeck (Iowa State University) , Elizabeth Swanner (Iowa State University) , Mark Rasmussen (Iowa State University)
Twelve thousand years ago, western Iowa was a very different place. The last of the Pleistocene ice sheets were receding, and the melting water created the Missouri River channel. The prevailing winds from the west blew particles of fine glacial debris into huge dunes and rolling hills resulting in the loess deposits of western Iowa. University of Iowa botanist and naturalist, Bohumil Shimek, published in the 1890s, first recognized the hills and bluffs of western Iowa were formed by the winds as the glaciers were receding. As the newly deglaciated prairie grasslands advanced, they created a fertile prairie landscape, which today is known as the “Loess Hills.”
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How to Cite: Beeck, J. , Swanner, E. & Rasmussen, M. (2020) “Nuggets of History Under Our Feet”, Iowa State University Research and Demonstration Farms Progress Reports. 2019(1).