Iowa
Old Press
THE COUNCIL BLUFFS NONPAREIL
Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie Co., Iowa
July 19, 1933
Lotus Lake in Full Bloom in River Bottoms on Iowa Side Near
Nebraska City
Shenandoah, July 19.--A "lotus lake" in the Missouri
river bottoms on the Iowa side near Nebraska City is in full
bloom. The magnificent flowers of creamy white are from ten
inches to a foot across, while the olive green leaves are twenty
inches to a foot in diameter. The flowers are all above the water
as they do not float like water lilies. Before the old Waubonsie
lake was drained it was one of the largest lotus beds in America,
700 acres of lotus, one of the most beautiful of America's wild
flowers. Artists and lovers of wild flowers would climb the high
bluffs by the lake and sit for hours enraptured by the beauty
before them. If one wants to see the lotus in full bloom, the
trip must not be too early in the morning or too late in the
afternoon as the flowers close for the night like the water lily.
It is supposed that the flowers were transplanted by the early
Indians, who used the seed pods for rattles for the papoose. The
roots taste like the sweet potato.
[transcribed by W.F., February 2008]