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 Welcome to West Pottawattamie County, Iowa
Western Iowa No-Tillers
Demonstration Day in June
As input costs continue to climb, and
because there are highly erodible soils in the fields of southwest Iowa, it makes sense
to engage in more no-till farming practices. Western Iowa No-Tillers will
hold a demonstration field day to be held on Tuesday, June 17, 2008, at Minden, Iowa.
Press
Release (.PDF)
Flyer (.PDF)
Lake
Manawa Watershed Council Resources Page
Badger Ridge Hitchcock
Nature Center near Crescent, Iowa
Contractors wishing to add or update their information click
here: 
General Information and History of Pottawattamie County, IA
Established - February 24, 1847
Organized - September
21, 1848
County Seat - Council
Bluffs
Courthouses - Council Bluffs and
Avoca
Pottawattamie County
was a part of the Pottawattamie Purchase of 1847. The county was originally
named after the Native American tribe that once existed and lived within
the Iowa Territory. Pottawattamie is a
traditional word meaning "Fire” or "Keepers of the Council
Fires".
The rapidly growing county seat
known as Kanesville had a population of about 7,000 in 1851; mainly Mormons
on their way from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah. It was also an important
outfitting town for gold seekers and others on their way to California and the
West. Kanesville was renamed Council Bluffs on
January 19, 1853. Avoca is the
judicial seat of eastern Pottawattamie
County. This town of
1,500 residents was founded in 1869.
The Loess Hills of Pottawattamie County, IA
The Loess (pronounced
"luss") Hills of western Iowa
were deposited in three stages during the last two major glaciations of the
upper Midwest. When continental glaciers
in the upper Midwest began melting, many rivers (including the Missouri) became
conduits for vast quantities of melt-water. This melt-water contained fine
grained sediment of silt, sand, and clay size. Strong winds created by air
pressure gradients around glaciers swept some of this sediment out of the
river floodplains and deposited it downwind creating the loess hills.
Loess in Iowa is separated into stratigraphic
units based on the time that it was deposited. Each unit has been given a name and can
be distinguished by its distinct chemistry and physical composition. The lowest layer of Loess is called the Loveland Loess and was
deposited 160,000 to 120,000 years ago as the glacial epoch known as the
Illinoian was coming to an end.
After the Illinoian glaciers melted, there was a hiatus of glacial
activity for approximately 100,000 years, after which glaciers returned
during a period known as the Wisconsinan.
The middle layer of loess was deposited from 31,000 to 25,000 years
ago during a major retreat of glaciers during the Wisconsinan glacial epoch
and is known as the Pisgah Loess. The topmost layer of loess, called the Peoria Loess, resulted
from major melting at the end of the Wisconsinan glacial epoch and was
deposited between 25,000 and 12,500 years ago. This makes the Loess Hills
some of the youngest natural landforms in Iowa!
The Loess Hills were
once home to many prehistoric species. Mammoths, mastodons, camels, bison,
musk ox, ground sloth, three-toed horses, dire wolf, stag moose, and
stilt-legged deer were among the animal fossils discovered in the Loess
Hills. Today the Loess Hills are home to many different species of mammals,
birds, reptiles and amphibians.
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