DNR TIMELINE: EVENTS IN IOWA CONSERVATION

DNR TIMELINE: EVENTS IN IOWA CONSERVATION

1763—Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet were one of the first expedition to Iowa down the Mississippi River to the Mouth of the Arkansas River.

Their journals especially noted their description of bison, which they called wild cattle. Several trading posts between the late 1700’s and the early 1800’s for trappers and Indians to exchange furs for various trade items.

1788—Julien Dubuque, 1st in Northeast Iowa.

1803—Iowa became a part of the United States when the Louisiana purchase was made from France. 1804 – Meriwether Lewis & William Clark, at the request of President Thomas Jefferson, passed up the Missouri River. L – Sergeant Floyd was the only person to die (Flu or Appendicitis?) on the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

1805—Zebulon Pike explored up the Mississippi river.

1806 – Meriwether Lewis & William Clark returned down the Missouri.

1819 – Thomas Say at Fort Lisa near Council Bluffs (1819-20).

He wrote the first faunal lists of Iowa Wildlife.

1820 – General Kearney in Iowa.

Several Military expeditions into Iowa recorded an abundance of wildlife.

1833— Pre-settlement times for Iowa are considered before 1833. Interestingly enough that is only 13 years before we became a State.

1833—Joseph Street, Indian agent, mentioned that except for buffalo, northeast Iowa was a country so full of game. Street’s observations are consistent with those explorers who preceded and followed him, as Iowa had an abundance of wildlife. The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers provide a natural passage way for many explorers, thus little was known about interior Iowa until European Settlement began in the 1820’s and 1830’s.

1834 – German Maximillian, Prince of Weid, and a naturalist traveled up the Missouri River by steamboat. His journal provides a glimpse of western wildlife.

1835—Stephen Kearny led a second army expedition up the Missouri to the Boyer River to Ruthven, Britt and Northwood and then into Minnesota. Often saw elk and recorded the largest herd of 5,000 bison recorded in Iowa. (1833-34).

1844 – John James Audubon, the famous artist and naturalist passed up the Missouri River and noted many geese, deer, and turkeys, as well as a number of species of smaller birds along the river.

1846 – Iowa became the 29th state in the Union.

1846—William F. (Buffalo Bill) was born in Le Claire near Davenport. He was the most famous of the buffalo hunters who supplied meat to the railroad builders.

1847 – Drought. First weather records begin.

1850 – Swampland Act Passed Congress.

1851—The original settlers of Cerro Gordo County were hunters seeking bison and other big game near Clear Lake in 1851. Lassoed bison calves to domesticate them.