These 8 Unbelievable Ruins In Iowa Will Transport You To The Past
By Michaela Kendall|Published January 23, 2016
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Michaela Kendall
Author
Michaela is a born and raised Iowan. She writes for a newspaper by day, and writes content for websites by night. In her spare time, she enjoys reading a good book, or just binge watching Netflix.
There are many abandoned places in Iowa, and though they’re not in very good shape, they’re still standing. Then, there are the places that have been abandoned for so long, that they have become ruins; forgotten for so long that they’ve begun to collapse in on themselves, and return to the ground. Much like the ancient ruins you will see in Europe, these 8 ruins in Iowa will transport you to a different time:
1. Stone City used to be an illustrious quarry town during the 1850s, but when Portland Cement began to be produced in Waterloo, many of Stone City's quarries were forced to shut down, and the town slowly dwindled. Many of the old buildings are still standing, though they are now ruins.
2. This abandoned grist mill stands along the north fork of the Maquoketa River at the site of the deserted ghost town, Rockville. Rockville was founded in 1845 and was a prosperous town until the railroad company started building tracks in neighboring towns, causing Rockville to fade away. Now there are nothing but the ruins to remind us.
8. The Gitchie Manitou State Preserve in Lyon County is the site of several ancient Native American burial mounds, as well as the oldest exposed quartzite in the state, which is about 1.6 billion years old. The ruins really speak to the history of the place.
