Ted Sojka 0  

The mounds were destroyed on this Prairie for flood control projects and town building in the 1800's through the next century.  The project called Prairie Pergrine, was designed to honor those who walked the Earth before us and to honor those who built the now destroyed earthworks of the ancient cultures that inhabited the same spring filled valley along the Upper Iowa River.    Caves, waterfalls, abound in the area.   It was a sacred spot and in later years had the village of Chief Winneshiek also known as Coming Thunder.     

The county bares his name and also the town is named after one of the Decora's, chiefs who were related to De Coree who was on the Marquette and Joliet expedition and married Joy of the Morning, a Winnebago daughter of a chief.  Their sons became traders and travelled to France. returning to share what they learned.   They had blacksmiths that made goods for trade and set up a network between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan.  

The parks department asked me to design the feature and then a group of Eagle Scouts working with advisers built the structure and planted it in native vegetation.   It is surrounded by a field of green grasses and eventually will flower with the many wildflowers and little blue stem.  It will change with the seasons and help educate those who walk the trail through the native grasses on the prairie about the past culture that shared this place with us.

The peregrine is a swift hunter and there are several bird mounds near cliffs that once had breeding pairs of these birds, the symbol used by the University of Iowa.