Scenes of Rare Beauty

SWISHER

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 10/9/2008 at 07:59:47

Palimpsest, June, 1931.
Scenes of Rare Beauty, J.A.Swisher.

Scientists have frequently vied with each other in describing the remarkable bit of topography located in Delaware County and widely known as the “Backbone” – formerly called the “Devil’s Backbone”. This noted ridge has a higher altitude that the surrounding country. During the glacial period it stood up “like an island in the midst of an ocean of ice”. It was not covered by the Iowan drift and is therefore a relic of the far distant past – and area of the “oldland” upon which “ten thousand of centuries have gazed”. In 1922 an area of nearly thirteen hundred acres in this region was dedicated as Backbone State Park.

The “backbone” is a long, narrow, limestone ridge, around which the Maquoketa River forms a loop. As one enters from the north, looking to the right, he sees the Maquoketa flowing southward, and as he looks to the left, behold there is the same stream flowing northward. The summit of the ridge rises sometimes a hundred and forty feet above the river. In places the sides are precipitous, rising sheer upward for a hundred feet. The exposed surfaces are frequently carved into “picturesque columns, towers, castles, battlements and flying buttresses”. This rugged area has long been known as a picnic ground and a summer resort, and many are the youths who have strolled down “Lovers’ Walk” and climbed the “Devil’s Stairway”.