You may have heard of the six towns that used to lie along the Des Moines River in Iowa where Lake Red Rock now is. They were bought out and moved or destroyed in preparation for the flooding lake waters. But there was a problem; the cemeteries could not just be left to disappear forever under the water. So, before the dam was finished, workers exhumed those buried in the lake’s path, cemetery by cemetery, and moved them to new resting places – eight cemeteries were moved! But one did not have to be – Red Rock Cemetery.
Fortunately, the community of Red Rock had selected a bluff overlooking the river valley as the site for their cemetery, and it was high enough to be safe from the rising water as Lake Red Rock filled in just a matter of days due to massive rain storms upriver.
Red Rock was a wild town in its early days, and the cemetery may well have received some of the multiple murder victims from the town. The community was mostly made up of hard-working people though, who loved their families and their country. This is evident if you read the epitaphs as you walk through the cemetery and see where the community buried their Civil War heroes and other loved ones.
The cemetery can be visited today in the small community of Painted Rocks, down a gravel road just north of the mile long bridge over Lake Red Rock on Highway T14. Ironically, the cemetery overlooks the lake that now buries the former town.
Many of the headstones are so old and worn that they’re difficult to read without obtaining a rubbing of the words. Several graves are proudly marked with flags, like this Civil War veteran's.
While the town of Red Rock is only a memory, Red Rock Cemetery remains a beautiful, peaceful place. Stop by to pay your respects to some of the brave men, women, and children who settled our great state.
Did you know Red Rock was the first town in Marion County, Iowa? It was also once considered as a potential site for Iowa’s capital city. Learn more about its history here. See the cemetery on Google Maps here.
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