Remnant Prairie

[Abby Brown] All of the highways, neighborhoods and buildings that you see in Iowa today weren't here 200 years ago. Can you imagine what was here way back then? Up here in northeast Iowa, your imagination can meet reality.

(Map marking Howard County the northeastern corner of the state.)

Only five miles from the Minnesota state line near the town of Lime Springs lies Hayden Prairie State Preserve. This place is super special and here’s why.

(A sea of yellow prairie flowers dancing in the wind.)

(White, yellow and purple prairie flowers for as far as the eye can see.)

The largest sections of remnant prairie in Iowa are in the northern corners of our state. And Hayden Prairie State Preserve is one of them. Remnant means still remaining. And when it comes to prairies, that means it's original. No settlers or farmers have ever tilled this land to plant corn or soybeans. So, it looks the way it would have looked before Iowa was even a state.

(Yellow prairie flowers with petals like cups.)

(White prairie flowers with petals like old-fashioned lacy doilies.)

But it goes even deeper than that. Because it was never dug up, the prairie here has plants that are originals, too. Some of them we don't often get to see in other places, like the Western Prairie Fringed Orchid, which is currently protected under the Endangered Species Act.

(The Western Prairie Fringed Orchid has a cluster of white hair like petals that grow in clusters off of a sturdy stem like finger keys on a flute.)

Other unique plants here have storybook names that are fun to say, like Yellow Lady Slipper and Bird's Foot Violet.

(The Yellow Lady Slipper flower has butter yellow petals that close in on themselves leaving just a small opening like the opening of a bedroom slipper.)

(The Bird’s foot violet has light violet petals that come out of a sunburst orange center that is shaped like a bird’s foot.)

The many prairie species of birds and insects also add to this very special and historic Iowa prairie. Naturalists say it would take hundreds of years, maybe even longer, to restore a farmed piece of Iowa land to a prairie as diverse as this original one. Hayden Prairie has been designated a biological state preserve, which among other things, means you can't pick or remove any of the 200 types of plants. But you can touch, smell, admire and even appreciate the importance of these natural beauties.

Every county in Iowa has an original story to tell. It was so fun walking through this prairie with you here in Howard County.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.