Arriving in Dubuque, Iowa, by early afternoon, we decided to explore The Mines of Spain State Recreation Area, just south of downtown Dubuque. Spreading across 1380 acres, the preserve commemorates the home of the Mesquakie Tribe, the original European settlement in Iowa and the regional lead mining industry that extended from the reign of the Mesquakie to the early 1900s. Julien Dubuque, granted the land by the Governor of Spain, lived here, married the daughter of the Mesquakie Chief and is buried beneath a memorial tower that overlooks the Mississippi Valley.
The present Recreation Area offers 10 trail loops through forest, fields and wetlands. One of these, an interpretive trail, leads through an abandoned channel of the Mississippi River (photo) where the Silurian cliffs were the site of much of the galena (iron ore) mining.
We did not have time to explore the rest of the preserve but did stop by the Julien Dubuque Memorial before leaving. With all due respect to this adventurous man, one cannot escape the fact that his settlement represented the beginning of the decimation of Iowa's natural ecosystems, a process that has occurred throughout the country and across the globe.
