Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1889 — Iowa’s Walled Lake. [ARTICLE]

Iowa’s Walled Lake.

The greatest w'onder in the State of lowa, and perhaps any State, is what is called the “Walled Lake,” in Wright County, twelve miles north of the l)ubuque and Pacific Railway, and 150 miles west of Dubuque city. The lake is from two to three feet higher than the earth’s surface. In some places the wall is ten feet high, fifteen feet wdde at the bottom, and five feet wide on top. The stones used in its construction vary in weight from three tons down to 100 pounds. There is an abundance of stones in Wright County, but surrounding the lake to the extent of five or ten miles there are none. No one can form an idea as to the means employed to bring them to the spot or who constructed it. Around the entire lake is a belt of woodland half a mile in width, composed of oak. The trees must have been planted there at the time of the building of the wall. In the spring of the year 1856 there was a great storm, and the ice on the lake broke the wall in several places, and the farmers in the vicinity were compelled to repair the damages to prevent inundation. The lake occupies a grand surface of 2,800 acres; depth ,of as great as twenty-five febt. The water is clear and cold, soil sandy and loamy. It is singula? that no "has been "able to ascertain where the water comes from nor where it goes, yet it is always clear and fresh.— Burlington {lowa) Hawkeye.