Decorah: A Walk into the Past

Decorah: A Walk into the Past. Water Street Trail. , Time and the River , The presence of water has always played an important part in Decorah's history. The Winnebago and the Oneota before them fished the river, hunted mussels in its depths, and made their dwellings beside it. The Oneota extended the river's bounty by grinding discarded clam shells to temper their pottery. William Painter, the first Yankee settler locally to harness the water's power, constructed a mill at what is now called Dunning's Spring. Seeking a site that would provide water, the William and Elizabeth Day family set up their first campsite and built their log cabin above what came to be known as the Day Spring adjacent to John Cline School. William Painter and Philip Morse, Decorah's third settler, built a dam on the Upper Iowa River and dug a millrace by hand, diverting waters from the Upper Iowa to provide water power for two mills. The millrace crossed where the Whippy Dip is located today to emerge behind what is now Vesterheim Museum. There it powered Morse's saw mill and Painter's stone flouring mill. The brick Woolen Mill (now the Woolen Mill Apartments) used the river's power to produce cloth. Tavener's Mill near the Fifth Avenue bridge and the Ice Cave Mill once located at the east end of Decorah Avenue produced several kinds of flour, cornmeal, and rolled oats courtesy of the river's current. , The Hitching Grounds and Environs , The flat area north of W. Water Street where the post office, city hall, police station, ball diamonds and the current city parking lot are located was formerly known as the "Hitching Grounds," the original "parking lot" for Decorah in its early days. People coming into town could leave their wagons and horses tethered there to the long hitching rails by the millrace while they shopped or conducted their business during the day. The horses would have water and could graze until the owners returned. Footbridges across the millrace at Court and River Streets provided access to the business district. The alternative was to leave horses at one of the livery stables for the day but many didn't want to spend money for that purpose. The hitching rails were still in use during the late 1920s. , In addition to the hitching grounds, a raised dike in the area covered the sewer pipe for the west side of Decorah. The city dump was also located in this area during the 1930s and 40s. Gilmer Seegmiller relates that local boys would use flashlights at night and shoot rats foraging in the dump. , Circuses, tent shows, and carnivals would also use this area when they came to town during the summer months. The last circus to use the area set up here after the flood control was complete and the city dump had been closed. The big tent where the performances took place was pitched near where the city hall is now. , The Floods , The river has also brought devastation. Spring and summer floods would often inundate the lowlands by the river causing the Dry Run to overflow into homes on Mechanic, River, and Mill Streets and putting portions of lower Winneshiek, Center, and Decorah Avenues under water. Railroad tracks throughout the city as well as bridges were lost. Thousands of dollars in property damage and loss of life were also the result. The year 1902 was particularly devastating with two destructive floods, one in May and the second in June. The photo above taken by Decorah photographer Frank Muller on June 20, 1902 records the flat area adjacent to where the high school is now located totally inundated by flood waters. Jim Burns' farm which was where the John Cline Elementary School is now located perches precariously on the edge of the flood water. The home shown in the upper right of the photo still stands at 302 Center Avenue. , The Solution , From Decorah's founding in 1849 onward, floods were a recurring problem causing damage amounting to millions of dollars along with loss of human life. Spring and summer floods occurred regularly when the river rose and the Dry Run tributary which cut through the city would back up and overflow. An unpleasant byproduct was the malodorous marsh infested with rats that receding flood waters regularly left in their wake. Decorah's city engineer Charles Altfillisch, who grew up on the Mississippi in Bellvue, Iowa and worked on a flood control project in Dayton, Ohio before coming to Decorah, was determined to do what he could to rectify Decorah's flood problem. He worked tirelessly for 17 years, traveling with other city officials to St. Paul, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. to confer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. To finance the solution, he worked with Congressmen Fred Biermann and Henry Talle, and federal funds in the amount of $1,245,000 were finally appropriated in 1947. Work on the flood control project began immediately and was completed in 1950. After cutting through the bluff on what is now Highway 52, water from Dry Run was diverted into the river. The river bed was changed and levees were built through the city. The Bernatz Mill, dependent on the water power produced by the millrace, was paid to eliminate the millrace and convert their machinery from water power to diesel power. The overall result was reclamation of a large area of land formerly an eyesore and removal of the regular threat of flooding. The Vesterheim storage building, Viking Theatre, the bowling alley, post office, city hall, drive-in bank, John Cline Elementary School, Decorah High School, athletic fields, and tennis courts occupy land formerly unusable because of the threat of flooding. On the west side of Decorah, Luther College was able to reclaim land for athletic fields, the fieldhouse, and other buildings on their lower campus. Because of Charles Altfillisch's vision, hard work, and perseverance, the unpredictable and unforgiving Upper Iowa River was "tamed." , [other photo captions] , . Circuses used the Hitching Grounds as a venue for their performances. This 1880s photo shows some of the attractions a visiting circus offered Decorah area residents including the Utah Mastodon, a Giant, and the Smallest Being on Earth. , . Another view of the 1902 flood event showing the overflowing river farther to the west. , . The last circus to use the Hitching Grounds appeared there in 1962. Mel Faldet took the opportunity to photograph his children with one of the elephants on the Hitching Grounds. He also captured images of the circus parade which included a long procession of elephants marching down Water Street. , . Highway 52 was rerouted around the city and an award-winning bridge was designed to span the “Cut.”, Funding for this sign provided by: Decorah Bank and Trust Co.