The 200-mile-long land formation known as the Loess Hills which comprises much of Iowa’s western border is subject of a new collaborative book. “On Common Ground: Learning and Living in the Loess Hills,” was created by a celebrated list of writers, naturalists, artists and others who were assembled in the region for a single weekend.
One of the project’s contributors and the co-editor is Brian Hazlett, a biology professor at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City. “We had people who wrote poetry as well as singer-songwriter here in the area,” Hazlett says. “We had people who wrote essays. There were other people involved, people who were theologians. We had artwork, which was done by Nan Wilson — she has some line drawings as well as color paintings, and there are photographs in there from a number of people.”
This diverse group of people from near and far toured the beautiful naturescape of western Iowa in September of 2021. One person lives in a forest on the East Coast, another hails from the deserts of Arizona, and many had never before been to western Iowa. “After finding grants from the Iowa DNR, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the local Everest Foundation, we brought together these people for a weekend in the Loess Hills,” Hazlett says. “Among the best things that we did was expose the group to a prairie burn, and then later, we were able to get close to the bison herd at Broken Cattle Grasslands.”
The hills were carved millennia ago by glaciers, and the land formation is unique to our hemisphere, with only an area of China being similar in its composition. Plus, western Iowa is the best place to see what this land may’ve looked like before it was settled by pioneers. “We have the largest prairie remnants in Iowa in the Loess Hills and the greatest number of prairie remnants compared to the rest of the state,” Hazlett says. “This is an important aspect of what we have. They are a unique land form. No place else do you get the depth of that loess accumulated in the United States, except here in western Iowa.”
Hazlett says it’s been a thrill to see this book published and he sees this format as being something that could have a wider scope. Hazlett says, “I know that the people who contributed are very excited to be a part of this, and it would be nice to continue this idea of bringing authors of various disciplines and focusing on a place elsewhere in Iowa and the rest of the region.” Book release events are planned August 24th at Briar Cliff University, and August 26th at Book People bookstore in Sioux City.
The 242-page book is now available and is published by North Liberty-based Ice Cube Press.