The Gitchie Manitou State Preserve is located in the extreme northwestern corner of Iowa, near the South Dakota border. The preserve, covering 91 acres, is home to Precambrian Sioux Quartzite outcroppings that are about 1.6 billion years old; the oldest surface bedrock in Iowa. Seventeen conical mounds have been found on the southern edge and archeologists believe they are a part of a large complex from the Oneota people who lived in the area for 8500 years. The county’s first post office and land office from the 1880s can also still be found on the north side of the site, these were part of a short lived settlement called Gibraltar. Today the quarry, that occupied the northeast corner of the preserve from the 1890s until 1920, is now filled with water and is known as Jasper Pool.
Images from Gitchie Manitou
Jasper Pool, formerly a quarry.
What remains of the Public Works Administration shelter.
