Federal money moving closer for Iowa monument

There’s been progress on the effort to secure federal money to pay for expanding a National Monument in northeast Iowa. A U-S House Subcommittee last week approved spending one million dollars to expand the Effigy Mounds National Monument north of Marquette.Congressman Jim Nussle, a republican from Manchester, says the plan is to use federal, state and private money to buy five different properties which are adjacent to the Effigy Mounds Park. They will total about 1,100 acres.Nussle says the Native American burial grounds are an historic, natural showplace.There are 191 pre-historic burial grounds at the site, which is on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation has pledged one-and-a-half million for the land purchase. The state of Iowa will put up over half a million.