July 27 – 29, 2016, Donnellson, Iowa
We arrived at Donnellson, Iowa where we are staying at Wilson Lake Park, a very nice county park surrounding Wilson Lake. We have a great full hook-up site with lots of shade trees. We are visiting our friends, Larry and Pauline, who are snowbirds we met in Arizona. We spent 2 days driving around the southwest corner of Iowa between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers. One stop was in Bentonsport which was established in 1836 and was a steamboat port on the Des Moines River until the railroad was built to Des Moines in 1866. Many historic buildings are still standing like the Mason House Inn which was built in the late 1840s. It served steamboat passengers and other travelers under a number of owners. Its barn reportedly sheltered runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. It is now a bed and breakfast with 9 bedrooms furnished in 19 th century antiques. We stopped at a great shop down the road called Iron and ...