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NAPC in Iowa

I ran across this while looking for something else (Was the Upper Iowa
River ever actually named/published as the Oneota River?) and thought it
might be of interest since the North American Prairie Conference is
being held in Iowa this month.
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"A Glimpse of Iowa in 1846; or, the Emigrant’s Guide, and State
Directory; with a Description of the New Purchase: Embracing Much
Practical Advice and Useful Information to Intending Emigrants, also The
New State Constitution" by J.B. Newhall, Second Edition, Burlington,
Iowa, W.D. Skillman, Publisher, 1846

p.16
Prairies
Beauty of the landscape similar to many views in England, France, and
Belgium. Erroneous notions of their susceptibility for cultivation.

“These, the unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful,
For which the speech of England has no name –
The Prairies.”   Bryant

Undoubtedly one of the most captivating features in the landscape
scenery of a great portion of the upper Mississippi valley, is the
unique and beautifully diversified Prairies, or unwooded tracts. They
are, in fact, the gardens of nature. And who that has been an eye
witness can ever forget the impressions made upon his feelings, when,
for the first time, he gazed with rapturous delight upon the boundless
prairie? The characteristic peculiarity of the prairies, is the entire
absence of timber; in other respects they present all the varieties of
soil and surface that are found elsewhere. Sometimes they are spread out
in boundless plains; at other times they are gently rolling, like the
swell of the sea after a subsiding storm. A diversity of opinion exists
as to the origin of prairies. Their undulating and finished surface,
crowned with the richest alluvial mould, bears ample proof, (in the
writer’s mind) of their having been, at some anterior period, submerged
beneath the waters of vast lakes, or inland seas; and these,
subsequently receding, have formed the natural channels through which
our vast and numerous rivers flow. Hence the rich alluvial deposit, and
fossil remains that so frequently occur; also, the laminae formation of
secondary lime rock; and successive strata of soil, are all evidences of
a once submerged country.

These meadows of nature are covered with a rich coat of natural grass,
forming excellent grazing for cattle; and, in the season of flowers,
present the most captivating and lovely appearance. The traveler now
beholds these boundless plains, untouched by the hand of man, clothed
with the deepest verdure, interspersed here and there with beautiful
groves, which appear like islands in the ocean. The writer has often
traveled amidst these enchanting scenes, on horseback, for hundreds of
miles, long before civilization commenced; sometimes threading a narrow
defile made by the “red man,” through the tall grass, and again suddenly
emerging to a broad expanse of thousands of acres covered with ever
variegated flowers.

It has been urged by some that, however our prairies may have added to
the beauty of the landscape, they are impediments to the settlements of
a country. Ten years ago, this objection was urged much more strenuously
than at present. For in that length of time may prairies, both in
Illinois and Iowa, have been converted into highly cultivated farms.
Upon which the “croakers” of early times predicted that no settler would
ever venture; and in ten years more, that such an objection ever did
exist will be a matter of wonder. A little calculation would convince
the most skeptical that it is cheaper, in the proportion of four to one,
to haul fencing (rail) timber two or three miles (which is about the
extent that any Iowa or Wisconsin farmer need go,) than to expend eight
or ten years of toil and labor in clearing the heavily timbered lands of
Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Canada.

I have often inquired of those individuals who reason against the
settlement of the prairies, if they ever knew a man to leave the Prairie
for the Timber? I have always inquired in vain. But we do know that tens
of thousands annually leave the Timbered countries to settle upon the
Prairies.

A popular error has prevailed, to a considerable extent, in the Atlantic
States, that our prairies were universally low, wet, swampy lands!
Prairie does not imply wet or flat lands. Our rolling prairies present
all the undulating features and diversity of surface that are to be met
with in many other countries.

The associations of the New Englander, and most of the inhabitants of
the Atlantic States, (respecting a new country,) are woods –
interminable woods. The English, the French, and the Belgians, have a
better simile of comparison with their own landscape. I will remember my
first impressions, some three years ago, the first hour I set my foot
upon the shores of old England , landing upon the shore of a beautiful
bay on the coast of Sussex.I involuntarily exclaimed, (casting my eyes
over the bright and verdant landscape,) how much the scenery of Britain
reminds me of the prairie scenery of America. Subsequently, I was often
forcibly reminded of the striking similarity of scenery. For instance,
the vale of Worcestershire and Herefordshire; likewise the scenery of
the Thames above London, affords a striking resemblance of many
beautiful spots upon the banks of the Des Moines. And that charming
panoramic view from “Richmond Hill” may justly be compared to the scene
which the traveler beholds from the grave of Julien Dubuque, or from the
“Cornice Rocks” above Prairie du Chien.

The American tourist who has or ever may travel over that pleasant road,
from Brussels to the Field of Waterloo, along the forest Soigoine, will
have an admirable standard of comparison for much of the scenery of
Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. Performing a pedestrian tour through that
picturesque and highly cultivated country, in the summer of ’44, I often
stopped by the road side to contemplate the scene before me. It required
no stretch of the imagination to shadow forth many of the identical
spots that I was wont to look upon in my native land.

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