Driving Across Iowa for Peace, Beauty, History & Family

Last week I spent a couple days at the above retreat center, putting together some historical information about this sacred spot. The land is about 200 acres of mostly native timber, or at least a remnant of what this land was like before white settlers arrived. It’s west of the East Nishnabotna River and was a favorite spot for many Native Peoples to fish, hunt, and gather wood. The Pottawattamie were the last Native Americans to live here before they were forced to move to Kansas in the mid 1800’s.

In 1942, the Boy Scouts purchased about 200 acres to create in 1948 Camp Wakonda, which used Native American lore and symbols to teach boys respect for nature and life skills such as archery, riflery, swimming, camping, and good citizenship.

In 1978, Wakonda Prayer House opened as an ecumenical retreat center. So many volunteers gave time and talent and resources to help Father Laverne Wingert build cabins, a chapel, and a dining hall in the same woods where the Boy Scouts adventured.

And then in 1994, Creighton University acquired the spot for its current retreat center. I learned about this spot from a friend who was studying to become a spiritual director. She needed a ride, so I decided to just spend a few days too. I felt the peace of the woods and the river. I heard the birds and the cicadas. Human silence allowed for nature to be heard. I loved being there and felt called to volunteer there last summer as their gardener.

I also got asked to dig up some history and have been struck by the holiness of the place and the respect for the spirit of nature that has been there through so many eras. As I wrapped up my research last Thursday, I learned the name of the artists who created a mural behind me in Manresa, the central building where I had been working. It honors the way of life of the people who lived here before we did. That was the big lesson I’d learned, and it was literally all around me – on the wall behind me and in the woods outside the windows in front of me.

But I had to leave CURC to drive about 4 hours to Ottumwa where I got to help judge my first History Day Contest on Friday. As I drove east over gravel roads, I saw so many wind turbines on the wide-open rolling hills. (So different from CURC.)

Finally in Wapello County on Friday, at Indian Hills Community College, this reproduction of American Gothic reminded me that nearby in Eldon, Iowa is where the house still stands.

Feeling right at home with these folks, I finally drove into Van Buren County in SE Iowa and to the Veatch Retreat near Stockport on Friday night.

If I could learn as much about the land here at the farm as I did about the retreat center! We are here again and slowly gearing up for the brick house restoration project. But as we work on that, it is so nice to have family and friends enjoy being here. Thankful whenever we are here and even happier when others join us. Another very special place. A family place.

Well, that’s it for this week. Thankful for what I am learning and what is possible.