Preparation Canyon State Park is located north of

Pisgah, Iowa Pisgah is a city in Harrison County, Iowa, United States, along the Soldier River. The community is located in the midst of the Loess Hills. The population was 249 at the time of the 2020 census. History Pisgah was laid out in 1899. The town's n ...

, United States. Located in the

Loess Hills The Loess Hills are a formation of wind-deposited loess soil in the westernmost parts of Iowa and Missouri, and the easternmost parts of Nebraska and Kansas, along the Missouri River. Geology The Loess (, , or ) Hills are generally located bet ...

, the park is a relatively undisturbed and undeveloped place. It provides space for picnicking, hiking, and camping in ten hike-in camp sites. Dramatic ridges are located on the north, south and west sides of the park, which is located on the north end of the Loess Hills State Forest.

History

The park is named after the former settlement of

Preparation, Iowa Preparation is a ghost town in Monona County, in the U.S. state of Iowa. History Preparation was founded in 1853 by a schismatic Latter Day Saint The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or ...

, that was located here. It was established in the 1850s by Charles B. Thompson and his followers. They were Mormons who had left the wagon trains heading west to

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. They believed that their existence in this life was preparation for the world to come, therefore they named their community "Preparation." A property dispute between Thompson and his followers, who were instructed to call him "Father Ephraim" after the Biblical figure of the same name, had to be settled by the

Iowa Supreme Court The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The Court holds its regular sessions in Des Moines in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building located at 1111 ...

and Thompson fled the state. At one time the town had 67 houses, a post office, skating rink, and blacksmith shop, but by the turn of the 20th century the town had been deserted except for the stockyard, which closed in 1946. Walter and Martha Perrin, who were descended from the original Mormons, sold the first for the park to the state of Iowa in 1934. Martha sold a further to the state in 1969, and eventually the family farmstead.

References

{{authority control Protected areas established in 1934 Protected areas of Monona County, Iowa State parks of Iowa