Iowa’s most dangerous park

Iowa’s state parks are supposed to be for fun and recreation, but one park is getting a reputation for something else — death. Forget about the cliffs at Wildcat Den in Muscatine County. Or the rattlesnakes at Maquoketa Caves in Jackson County. Iowa D-N-R officials say Alisades-Kepler, near Mount Vernon, may be Iowa’s most dangerous state park. It is at least the most dangerous in eastern Iowa. A nine-year-old Marion boy died there Tuesday. He drowned after falling from a cliff. And just last month, two teenagers from Kalona drowned at the park. Iowa D-N-R officials say they don’t keep park-by-park statistics on injuries and deaths in state parks. But they say it’s not uncommon for visitors at Palisades-Kepler to tumble from its limestone bluffs and drown in the Cedar River below.