Ledges State Park
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The Ledges State Park is a state park in Iowa in the United States. The park comprises land around area of sandstone cliffs and bluffs next to Des Moines River approximately 4 miles west of the city of Boone.
The area was designated one of the first of Iowa's state parks in 1924, and is today one of its most visited parks.
The lowland areas of the park are periodically flooded by the Des Moines River. In the 1970s, the state proposed a dam on the Des Moines that would have flooded the streambed areas of the park, but popular outcry forced a cancelation of the proposal.
The park includes numerous stone buildings and bridges constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Geology
The sandstone of the cliffs was the remnant of the prehistoric sea that covered the Midwest approximately 300 million years ago. The cliffs themselves are the result of recent glaciation during the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago, when meltwater carved quickly down through the rock.
See also
External link
- Official site (http://www.state.ia.us/dnr/organiza/ppd/ledges.htm)