The Land of Happy Little Trees - Part 1

At the crossroads of 350th St. and Nighthawk Ave. stands a precarious cottonwood tree that ought not be there at all. As folklore goes a surveyor in 1850 cut a cottonwood sprout to use as a walking stick while marking the Audubon and Cass county lines. Purportedly the surveyor stuck the sprout in the ground and left it there where it miraculously took root and grew into the 171 year old 100+ foot tall cottonwood tree that call the intersections it's home. Of course there is no way to prove or dispel the story now since anyone who might have first hand knowledge of the events is long since gone. True, false or somewhere in between doesn't really matter now, what matters is that somehow the cottonwood has been allowed to remain smack dab in the middle of that intersection for a really long time. Something like that, a curious person has to see for themselves, and so this is how we found ourselves traveling to Atlantic, IA on a warm spring day with a gravel route and bicycles in tow.


The "coke" capitol of Iowa you say, sounds nefarious.



After about an hour in the car we found ourselves in Gravely Country, sounded like we were in the right place. It was intended to be a normal Saturday ride with the usual suspects but only three of us showed from that group. It has always struck me as a bit peculiar that folks will drive a couple of hours for a ride they have paid for but won't make the same drive for a free ride. Not sure where that distinction comes from but I am more than willing to take their money if that's all it takes, cash only I do not accept check, credit card or money order. Thank you, kindly. 




We did meet up with the Limestoners Cycling Club so there was still a decent group to ride with even if it wasn't the usual group.




The Limestoners were planning on a mile route that hit the tree in the middle of the road and then headed back to Atlantic, Doug and I decided to check out two additional pieces of Americana and would split off after the tree and get in a total of 65 miles on our journey.





In the way of a little added bonus, Jon, a local showed up to join us and we were treated to a stop at his farm which has been in the family since 1867! Jon ended up joining Doug and I up to Exira before splitting off and heading back to the farm, hope we can figure out a plan again to ride with Jon.





Shortly after leaving the Jordan farm we happened upon an old cemetery with several headstones dating back to the mid to late 1800s. There was also a stairway that has long since been missing it's church that we dubbed the Stairway to Heaven.


Sans church, it still made good for choir practice.


I've already told the story of the tree in the middle of the road and while that story is interesting it's even more interesting that it's still around. When you think about it, the tree is over 170 years old and in all that time not a single person from the county or roads department had taken it upon themselves to remove the tree. That's almost unheard of, where else would they just allow a traffic impedance to remain? I think they are stuck with it now because removing it would cause a huge uproar I suspect but back 20 or 30 years ago I doubt it would have been noticed.



A lesser known fact about the tree is that is also bears hipster fruit in the form of Hazy IPAs and they perfectly matched the Fargo too. I have to admit that IPAs are not my favorite type of barley pop but you never look a gift beer in the mouth as they say and it was nice to have something cold to drink on the first really warm spring day.




While we were exploring the first cemetery a local in a UTV came by and chatted us up a bit, he let us know that there was another cemetery up the road that contained the grave of the first European settler in Audubon county. I wasn't sure if we were going to pass it or not so I was pleasantly surprised when we did ride right by it, a stop was in order of course.




Nathaniel Hamlin was born in Kentucky in 1814 and settled in what is now Audubon county in 1851 with his wife, Margaret, and started farming his 160 acres of land on the banks of the Troublesome Creek. Nathaniel was also the first treasurer of the county and the first Postmaster of Hamlin's Grove post office and lived to the ripe old age of 83. During that time he grew his farm from 160 to 1400 acres, the family also grew to 63 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren before his death in 1897. The odd thing about this cemetery was that there were several headstones for folks that lived into or beyond their 70s or 80s, one up over 100. When you think that the average life expectancy back then was about 40 years having that many in one cemetery that surpassed that by a lot is crazy, must be something in rural Iowa water. I did snag a pine cone from the tree that was at the edge of the fence, hopefully it doesn't end up being a haunted pine cone since the tree has spent countless decades leaching nutrients off the remains of the dead. We will end the tale here for now to keep the blog from becoming a novella and we will call this part one, come on back for part 2.