In late September of 2024, Ledges State Park celebrated 100 years of existence. Existence as a State Park. Ledges is widely considered the best State Park in Iowa. Although Backbone State Park and Maquoketa Caves State Park are also fine parks. But they are not Ledges.
On the morning of the the Centennial Celebration I met Jay and Willy out there for a pancake breakfast. (You know your boy is a sucker for a community pancake feed.) Then we went on part of the history tour. But we had to cut it short as Jay had to be back in Boone by 11 for reasons that currently escape me. Perhaps he is a fun hater. I know lots of fun haters.
Here are pictures from the morning:
I had forgotten until I gazed on the pictures of them lovely pancakes that they offered syrup made from raspberries harvested in the park. That was particularly delicious! On the “Historic Character Hike” was saw actors portray Carl Fritz Henning the first custodian of Ledges, Louis Pammel and Iowa State professor and the Father of State Parks in Iowa, and a worker in the Civilian Conservation Corps. There was a 4th actor that we didn’t get to see since we had to cut the tour short. I’m pretty sure it was Ada Hayden though.
If you are from this area, you know the name Ada Hayden from the beautiful park in north Ames that bears her name. But did you know who Ada Hayden was? She was the first female to earn a doctorate degree at Iowa State. She taught Botany at Iowa State until her death in 1950. The large prairie in upper Ledges is the oldest restored prairie in the state of Iowa. It was hand seeded and Ada Hayden helped to seed the prairie.
I have plenty more pictures from the Ledge Centennial left to share. After dropping Jay off at home, I went back out to enjoy the music and the food trucks. At least I did enjoy the music.
I love this! And I love your history lesson about Ada Hayden.
Last year as part of my work on the human relations commission in town, I made a coloring book of notable Ames people throughout history. Ada Hayden was in there!
So confession. The old guy in the beard that there is only one picture of. I took that picture cause I thought he was going to be one of the historical characters. He was not.
You made a coloring book? I hope Tyrese Haliburton was in the coloring book or it is incomplete.
I bet it would be hard to get many of the people mid-performance, depending on positioning, etc. No judgment from me on thinking he was historical, so did I!
I did! It was supposed to be pioneers and Ames who were of minority groups, of which women were included. Tyrese is not in there, so he will have to be in the next one – Jack Trice was, though!!
And you designed the pages of the coloring book? Did Holloway Smith make the book? Did noted racist Carrie Chapman Catt make the book?
I did design it! I worked with the City Manager’s office – they picked the folks (so no Holloway Smith) and wrote the blurbs for each page, and then I made the coloring book pictures, etc. I’m no artist so they’re FAR from great – but you can get a copy at Worldly Goods downtown. The theme is Trailblazers, so it’s people who were the “first” to do something, by and large.
It has:
– George Washington Carver (for obvious reasons)
– Ada Hayden (first woman to ever get a Dr of Philosophy degree at Iowa State College)
– Neta Snook Southern (pioneer aviatrix who taught Amelia Earhart to fly)
– James Herman Banning (first black person to get a pilot’s license and first black aviator to complete a transcontinental flight – Ames airport named after him)
– Jack Trice (for obvious reasons)
– Helen LeBaron Hilton (Dean of College of Home Economics, first woman elected to Ames City Council)
– Russell George Pounds (first black man elected to Ames City Council, other local government positions)
– Lee Fellinger (first woman elected mayor of Ames, worked on Manhattan Project)
– Lauro Cavazos (PhD from ISU, Dean of Tufts School of Med, Pres of Texas Tech, then became the 4th ever US Secretary of Education, making him the first Latinx person to serve in the US Cabinet in any position)
– Wayne Clinton (first Black teacher at Ames Middle School, on Story County Board of Supervors, etc.)
– Jane Smiley (first woman from Ames to win Pulitzer)
– Anita Rollins (first Black woman on Ames City Council – current member)
– David Martin (first openly gay person on City Council)
– Bee Nguyen (first Vietnamese-American to win election to the Georgia House and the first Asian-American Democratic woman to hold a state office in Georgia)
– Harrison Barnes (first person of color from Ames High School to be drafted to the NBA)
Seems like a pretty good list, except for Harrison Barnes. Nothing against him, but that one seems a little shoe-horned in.